SC residents share images, multiple reports of fiery ball falling from sky

Residents from across the Southeast — including in South Carolina — have reported seeing a fireball streaking through the sky, captivating onlookers who wonder about the flames above.

The National Weather Service is investigating reports of debris — possibly from a meteor or space junk — falling from the sky across the region.

The reports came in by the hundreds during the afternoon of June 26, including from the Midlands, Upstate and Charleston area. 

The weather service’s office in Columbia began receiving calls about the falling debris between 12:30 and 1 p.m., according to meteorologist Drew Hickok.

NWS said in a post on X that satellite-based lightning detection showed a streak within cloud-free sky by the North Carolina-Virginia border around 12:56 p.m.

The weather service has not yet confirmed what was falling, but Hickok speculated it could be “space debris or meteors.” 

“We don’t have any further information. We are still figuring this out,” Hickok said. 

Residents in the Carolinas, Georgia and Tennessee all took to social media immediately to share sightings of the fiery ball.

Reddit user Fit_Long_1396 posted to the Charleston subthread saying, “I am driving on 526 towards Savannah It’s 12:27 PM and something just fell out of the sky. Did anyone else see that?”

On the platform X, user @HoundofFate posted a video along with the caption, “Something just fell out of the sky in Greenville, SC more specifically near I-385 and Harrison Bridge rd in Fountain Inn, SC.”

Sarah Laguerre had left Beaufort and was driving southbound on Bees Creek Road in Ridgeland when she saw what looked like a bright firework.

“I’m looking and I’m like ‘no that’s actually something that’s on fire that’s falling from the sky,’ ” she told The Post and Courier on June 26.

By 4:30 p.m. June 26, more than 130 pending fireball reports from 20 states were made to the American Meteor Society, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting research activities of amateur and professional astronomers interested in meteors.

While reports amass from people looking at the skies, the exact cause of the fireball has not been confirmed. In a statement, the Federal Aviation Administration said there were no reports of unusual aircraft activity in the region.

NASA officials have not immediately responded to a request for comment, but around 4:30 p.m. an updated New York Times article shared insight from the American Meteor Society. 

“It looks to be a ‘daytime fireball’ that caused a sonic boom,” said Mike Hankey, the operations manager at the American Meteor Society. “This is usually indicative of a meteorite dropping a fireball, but not always.”

According to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, meteors are rocks in space that enter the Earth’s atmosphere at high speeds, creating fireballs.

The fireball event is occurring during the June Bootid meteor shower, which is supposed to peak on June 27.