Fireball over Wisconsin, US - Possible meteor

[SSOWorld]

A large fireball was spotted by webcams and visible as far away as Missouri and Indiana.  National Weather service Radar picked up a strange echo just 5 miles north of where I live. 

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/news/display_cmsstory.php?wfo=grb&storyid=50895&source=0 (Photo from UW-Madison, Radar from NWS La Crosse (WI))

Here is an animated version of the previously linked photo:http://www.aos.wisc.edu/fireball/2010_04_14_fireball_loop_1024x768_long.gif

story from the Wisconsin State Journal - http://host.madison.com/news/local/article_e9bce742-4847-11df-8158-001cc4c03286.html

I heard the sonic boom myself and it shook the apartment building.  I looked out to see if there was any lightning thinking there was a storm (though nothing was forcast) and then looked at the radars from NWS - to find nothing but ground clutter.  I figured then it was a sonic boom.

[hm insulators]

Why do these spectacular phenomena always take place halfway across the country from where I live?

[mightyace]

Some pieces have been found and will be displayed:

Midwest meteorite fragments to be shown at University of Wisconsin Geology Museum

[tchafe1978]

On the night that happened, I saw a flash of light for a few seconds, then a few seconds later, heard the sonic boom. I thought we were having a thunderstorm, so I went around and closed all the windows in the house, only to look up at the sky a few minutes later and see no clouds and I could see the stars. So I figured something else must be going on. Wasn't til I turned on the news the next morning that I heard it was a meteor. I never did see the actual meteor itself, I wish I had looked outside sooner. The debris field is just a few miles from where I live in SW Wisconsin. I haven't found any pieces, yet.