WATCH: Bright Flash, Thunderous Boom Over Northern Minnesota Monday Night

A strange, bright flash in the sky in Northern Minnesota was accompanied by a loud crackling boom on Monday night. While it looks and sounds an awful lot like lightning and thunder, there were no storms anywhere in the region.

The scene was witnessed in the Bemidji area, with video of the incident captured in the Bemidji neighborhood Nymore, which is on the south edge of Bemidji.

The flash and subsequent booming sound in the sky happened around 6:40 pm on Monday night, November 13, 2023.

Beltrami Country Emergency Management was given footage by a resident of the Nymore neighborhood, which they say clearly shows a bright flash - which was described as blue-white in color in the sky. Shortly after the flash, you hear the loud boom in the video, which residents say rattled homes, shook houses, and was heard across most of the southern part of the county.

In response to the bright flash and loud, thunderous boom, Beltrami Country Emergency Management issued a statement on the subject. While they don't have any conclusive evidence, they believe the flash and boom were likely caused by a meteor.

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The sheer loudness of that boom is just crazy! If it was indeed a meteor, it must have gotten pretty low in the atmosphere before it exploded.

Having lived in the Bemidji area for a few years while going to college, I can say that part of Minnesota seems to be prone to bright flashes and streaks in the sky. On more than one instance I saw not just streaks of light - but bright fireballs that got very close to earth, falling below the treeline.

The most memorable one was around Christmas a good 15 years ago, when a bright green fireball burned through the sky, ending up below the treeline. It had to hit the ground somewhere the way that it looked.