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by WILL FOLKS
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Hundreds of thousands of South Carolinians heard – and felt – a massive boom and subsequent shock wave emanating from the Midlands region of the Palmetto State on Thursday afternoon (May 28, 2026).
The phenomenon – believed to have been caused by a meteor – was observed shortly before 5:24 p.m. EDT, and was felt as a pressure wave by multiple FITSNews employees at our headquarters, which are located approximately ten miles northwest of downtown Columbia, S.C.
At numerous locations across the Midlands, multiple reports of an “explosion” and subsequent shock wave poured in – with residents in at least four counties describing the impact of the phenomenon.
“It shook my entire house,” Forest Acres, S.C. resident Amelia Sjodin said.
As of 6:30 p.m. EDT, no official explanation had been provided by any entity as to the origin of the phenomenon, which was heard and felt as far away as Florence, S.C.
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Multiple state and local law enforcement agencies have confirmed to FITSNews that there was no “active scene” associated with the phenomenon, while military officials at Fort Jackson were every bit as mystified as the public at large. Officials with the S.C. Emergency Management Division (SCEMD) also weren’t initially sure what transpired.
“SCEMD is working to determine the cause of the reported boom,” agency spokeswoman Tiffanie Barrett told us initially told us.
More than two hours after the boom, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) reported a sonic boom had been recorded approximately six kilometers north-northwest of St. Andrews, S.C., a census designated place in eastern Richland County.
One video posted to Facebook by a Midlands resident, Robin Brooks Parker, appeared to show a meteor in the sky around the time of the boom…
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“This event is not an earthquake,” USGS noted. “The recorded waves and eyewitness reports are consistent with a sonic boom. Because earthquake magnitude scales are calibrated for seismic waves that travel through the Earth, our standard magnitude calculation methods do not apply to sonic booms. Therefore, we manually assigned a magnitude of 0.0. Given that the source of a sonic boom is moving, the location and origin time are also approximate and are based on the arrival times of the sound waves at seismic stations, as well as the locations of eyewitness reports.”
USGS did not provide any indication as to what object may have caused the boom, although military aircraft were reportedly investigating the scene in the aftermath of the event. At least one Boeing P-8A Poseidon based out of Naval Air Station (NAS) Jacksonville – a jet equipped with sophisticated intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance equipment – was tracked in the vicinity of the epicenter of the boom.
Officials at the National Weather Service (NWS) in Columbia, S.C. noted they “heard and felt the boom” from their post at the Columbia Metropolitan Airport.
Local meteorologist Chris Jackson posted the following video from the airport depicting the sound and subsequent shock wave…
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Got some video with sound of the boom from my friend Ryan Turiak’s camera on top his hanger at Hamilton-Owens Downtown Airport in Columbia.
— ? Chris Jackson ? (@ChrisJacksonSC) May 28, 2026
Definitely not an earthquake. #sctweets pic.twitter.com/zZhMa3sf12
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“Whatever that was had a pressure wave with it,” Jackson noted. “It hit me in the chest.”
Speculation initially centered around a possible earthquake, although the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) did not report any seismic activity in the area at the time of the blast.
Jackson also noted the nature of the “pressure wave” accompanying the boom all but ruled out an earthquake.
“That shockwave that you felt was the pressure wave which is why I can say with 99% certainty this wasn’t an earthquake,” he wrote on X. “It felt like someone shoved me right in my chest an instant before the boom began.”
Additional videos of the boom and shock wave reinforced this description…
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— Hannah Crumpton (@CrumptonHannah) May 28, 2026
TURN UP THE VOLUME! This is what many said they heard across the Pee Dee and Midlands earlier this afternoon. Still trying to figure out what it was. It wasn't an earthquake and likely not sonic booms from planes (felt over too vast an area). Could it have been a meteor?… pic.twitter.com/bB8YVi4YWF
— Ed Piotrowski (@EdPiotrowski) May 28, 2026
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
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7 comments
I’m at the beach today and we heard it here.
Where is Space Force?
Will, re: video of meteor. Looks more like a chem-trail than a meteor.
It was not a meteor. The international Meteor tracking authority did not detect a meteor cause at 5:20pm Thursday. Nor, was it lightning from a storm, as no atmospheric measurements showed a strike at that time. Nor, was it the rocket blowing up at Cape Kennedy, as it happened 4 hours later. This was all confirmed by GeoPhysicist: Burns. Likely it was an airplane. I personally saw a jet at this time over Lake Murray. It appeared to be above 30,000 feet in clear air. That was likely the cause: a Sound Barrier break by a military plane. Probably, F16, which fly over Lake Murray from Shaw AFB or McEntire AFB. We had a lot of these type sounds in the 1950s and early 1960s. Before, the US banned planes from breaking the sound barrier over the USA. They were terrible, happening several times a day.
Easy there Maverick…
Where? The Space Force is at the Pentagon and various bases around the US.
the post cold war ban re aircrafts was a 50 year ban. and it expired in June 2025. personal opinion, it was a military test.