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SALT LAKE CITY — The cause of a large explosion heard across the Wasatch Front on Saturday has yet to be determined, but all signs seem to point to the heavens above. The first reports of a large explosion began around 8:32 a.m. Saturday morning, prompting a flurry of social media posts. Many people uploaded videos from home cameras that captured the loud blast, which could be heard across most of the Wasatch Front, northern Utah and even parts of southern Idaho. University of Utah seismologists quickly confirmed that the explosion was not an earthquake. Soon after, both Gov. Spencer Cox and the Utah National Guard tweeted that the blast was not related to any military installation, a common cause of sonic booms. All focus then turned to the galaxies. Several people reported seeing a burning object in the sky, thinking the explosion might be related to a meteorite. The National Weather Service office in Salt Lake City bolstered the meteor theory when flashes that weren’t caused by a storm appeared on its maps. Videos emerged of a meteor streaking across the morning sky in Roy shortly before the explosion. “We now have video confirmation of the meteor heard in northern Utah, southern Idaho and elsewhere this morning,” the weather service tweeted. The timing aligns with the Perseid meteor showers, which peaked on Friday, according to Space.com. The site notes that the meteor shower is caused by ice and rock from Comet Swift-Tuttle, which last flew by Earth in 1992. It has produced up to 150 to 200 visible meteors per hour in the past. Bolstering the meteor theory for this morning’s #Utah eruption, the two reddish pixels seen over Davis and Morgan counties are from the GOES-17 Lightning Mapper, but not associated with satellite or radar evidence of storm activity. Possibly the meteor trail/flash #utwxpic.twitter.com/qRO2Rsfca7 — NWS Salt Lake City (@NWSSaltLakeCity) August 13, 2022 KSL-TV spoke with Patrick Wiggins. He has an asteroid named after him, worked at the local planetarium for decades, and now volunteers for NASA. He said it’s not rare to see a meteor pass over Utah, but it’s rare to hear a meteor. If you heard it, like many people today, that means it was close, and chances are there are fragments of that meteor somewhere in Utah, he said. Wiggins’ advice is to look around your home or wherever else you go. “Some of them are more expensive than gold,” Wiggins said. “You didn’t know you just walked past a $50,000 rock.” Contributing: Carter Williams, Michael Locklear, KSL-TV x
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Ashley Fredde covers human services, minority communities and women’s issues for KSL.com. She also enjoys reporting on arts, culture and entertainment news. He is a graduate of the University of Arizona.
