Fireball and sonic boom over Vancouver was likely meteor

VANCOUVER — British Columbians took to social media Tuesday evening to share sightings of a bright fireball in the night sky over Vancouver and a house-rattling sonic boom that an expert says were “undoubtedly” caused by a meteor.

Robert Lunsford with the American Meteor Society says a review of the reports coming out of B.C.’s Lower Mainland suggest the bright flash was likely a “fireball,” a type of meteor that is larger and brighter than normal.

Lunsford also says the flash was unlikely to have been caused by human-made space debris given its short duration.

The analysis comes after witness reports described a flash seen over a long range, while the sonic boom that followed could be heard from the Fraser Valley to Washington State.

Alison Bird, a seismologist from Natural Resources Canada’s earthquake early warning operation, says a few local seismometers in B.C. — all in the Lower Mainland — clearly picked up the shaking at 9:10 p.m.

She says the agency can confirm the shock was “not an earthquake” but cannot give a specific location, as its system is designed to detect movements within the Earth and not the atmosphere.

People have also been sharing webcam footage on social media showing the sky brightening, from one horizon to the other, as the suspected meteor soars above the clouds.

Lunsford, based in San Diego, Calif., said the average meteor is only pea-sized.

“A meteor the size of a softball can produce a flash as bright as the full moon and qualify as a fireball,” Lunsford said . “Therefore, this object was still relatively small, but capable of producing an impressive sight in the sky.”

He said the brightness of the flash it causes is an indicator of the meteor’s high velocity and not its size.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 4, 2026.