BEMIDJI — Residents of Beltrami County were jostled by a bright flash of light and explosion at about 6:40 p.m. Monday in what county officials now believe was a meteor.

Chris Muller, public information officer for the Beltrami County Sheriff’s Office, said several residents reported seeing the flash and/or hearing what sounded like a sonic boom.

“The Beltrami County Emergency Communications Center received numerous reports of a bright blue/white flash in the sky followed by an incredibly loud explosion,” Muller noted in a statement released about two hours after the event. “I, too, heard it from my residence east of Bemidji. It shook windows, walls and rattled the dishes.”

Muller said that after the incident was reported on social media, the sheriff’s office received similar reports across a large area of southern Beltrami County. The county shared a video on Facebook, submitted by an anonymous resident of the Nymore neighborhood of Bemidji, that shows a bright flash and then a very loud boom, like a thunder clap.

The evening sky was clear at the time, according to data from the National Weather Service website.

“It is obvious there was something of significance that passed over the skies of Beltrami County, but we can only speculate it was a meteor at this time,” Muller noted.

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