Streaking light, shaking houses in Carmel might have been a sonic boom

Residents in Carmel are reporting a light streaking across the sky and houses shaking Friday evening in what Hamilton County Emergency Management said might have been a sonic boom from a meteor.

"Pilots in Kentucky saw a meteor to the north," the agency said in a tweet. "A lightning detection system picked up something over Carroll County."

Police and fire officials are investigating, the tweets said.

WISHTV reported earlier this week that the annual Lyrid meteor shower was scheduled to peak over Central Indiana this weekend, bringing as many as 10 to 20 visible meteors an hour.

As of Saturday, the American Meteor Society's fireball log reported 20 sightings of a fireball event across Indiana, Illinois and Michigan. According to the map, the fireball was positioned just north of Tipton, Indiana, and moved from east to west.

According to the American Meteor Society, sounds like sonic booms can be generated from fireballs, but it's rare. Sonic booms can occur when a very bright fireball gets low enough in the atmosphere and explodes. But because sound travels slowly, viewers may see the fireball up to four minutes before hearing the sonic boom.

Indianapolis' National Weather Service tweeted Saturday morning that its lightning detection system picked up the reported fireball meteor. This type of detection has happened before, hydrometeorological technician Brad Herold told IndyStar.

"Sometimes we can see things that are of interest but unrelated to weather," he said.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Sonic boom? Carmel residents report streaking light, shaking houses