A fireball meteor exploded over Georgia and South Carolina — and now video is starting to surface. Witnesses across the Southeast reported a blazing object in the sky around 12:30 PM, with some hearing a loud boom.

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— MyRadar (@myradar.bsky.social) June 26, 2025 at 4:20 PM

Daylight fireball reported over U.S. Southeast

On Thursday, July 26, 2025, social media reports of a rare daytime fireball streaking across the sky began pouring in. As of this writing, over 162 reports from people in the U.S. southeast – mostly from Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee – have been submitted to the website of the American Meteor Society (AMS).

What is a fireball? It’s a larger-than-usual bit of space debris that encounters our atmosphere and vaporizes, leaving behind a bright streak. It’s not an uncommon occurrence for Earth as a whole, but it can be a once-in-a-lifetime sighting from any particular spot on Earth. Yes, the brightest fireballs can be seen in daylight!

Did you see it? Report the fireball to the AMS

What we know so far

According to Newsweek:

The National Weather Service of Charleston, South Carolina, said on X that there are “many reports” of a fireball across the southeastern U.S.

It is not certain, but the satellite-based lightning detection shows a streak within cloud free sky.

The agency said the streak was detected over the border of North Carolina and Virginia between 11:51 a.m. to 11:56 a.m.

And a post from CIRA showed one of the GEOS satellites caught the bright flash over Georgia today:

A bolide, or large meteor, broke up over South Carolina and Georgia earlier today, creating a fireball that was bright enough to be captured by GOES-19.

— (@cira-csu.bsky.social) 2025-06-26T20:27:11.383Z

Other posts on social media

Video of the fireball caught on a dashcam and posted on X.com.

@newsweek A Tesla dashcam captured the moment a “fireball” fell from the sky near Interstate 20 in Aiken, South Carolina. #news #newsweek #SouthCarolina ? original sound – Newsweek

@abcnews Fireball sightings were reported in multiple states across the southeastern U.S. during the day on Thursday. The American Meteor Society said it received over 140 reports of fireball sightings Thursday over six states — Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. #news #fireball ? original sound – ABC News

Frequency of daylight fireballs

Readers might be surprised that meteors can also be seen during the daylight hours. Just like you can see the moon during the daylight hours, when a meteor exceeds a magnitude of -8 (comparable to the brightness of a half-illuminated moon), you can see it, too, with the unaided eye as long as it appears far enough from the sun. The AMS receives an average of one daylight event per month from all over the world. This is far less than 1% of the total events recorded per month.

Did you see it? Report it to the AMS/IMO.

Bottom line: Several reports were posted on social media of a rare daylight fireball that was seen over multiple states in the southeastern part of the United States on June 26, 2025.

Marcy Curran
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About the Author:

Meet Marcy Curran, our voice of the night sky on EarthSky YouTube. Check out her popular short videos in the Sky category on our YouTube channel. When she’s not making videos, Marcy is an EarthSky editor, helping to keep our night sky guide up-to-date and just generally helping to keep the wheels turning around here. Marcy has enjoyed stargazing since she was a child, going on family camping trips under the dark skies of Wyoming. She bought her first telescope in time to see Halley’s Comet when it visited the inner solar system in 1986. She co-founded her local astronomy club and remains an active board member. Marcy taught astronomy at her local community college for over 20 years. She and her husband live in Wyoming, in a rural location, with an all-sky camera and super-good horizon views! And, their observatory will soon be ready to photograph the night sky.