"It is very unlikely that any sizable fragments will survive passage through the Earth's atmosphere." http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news159.html

"Objects of this size would be expected to enter the Earth's atmosphere every few months on average but this is the first time such an event has been predicted ahead of time."

That's pretty significant/awesome.

In other words, barely news.

it's the first time something like this has been predicted though. that's something.

Fair point, I missed that.

Not to mention the 1kt energy is not too shabby, even if it's far up.

Oh yes, the poor population of Sudan, huddled together on 5 meters of ground, and that is the exact 5 meters that gets hit by an asteroid. What are the odds?

You do realize that meteor impacts affect more than just the immediate area, right?

Well, we're talking in different terms here. I happen to be aware how the geography and population density of Sudan looks like. It's a huge country with lots of desert and a very low population density in most of the area. I could drop Switzerland on top of Sudan and only a few goats would blink.

This is an example of miscommunication based on assumed knowledge.

You do realize that we're talking nuclear bomb type levels of energy here... even if Sudan is an African Canada, random nukes do have consequences. :-)

It is only 1 kiloton. The 1908 Tunguska meteor was ~10-20 megatons, and caused no known deaths or injuries.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunguska_event

.

According to that Wikipedia article, kiloton-range bolides (airburst meteors) typically occur on Earth more than once per year.

A stony meteoroid of about 10 metres (30 ft) in diameter can produce an explosion of around 20 kilotons, similar to that of the Fat Man bomb dropped on Nagasaki, and data released by the U.S. Air Force's Defense Support Program indicate that such explosions occur high in the upper atmosphere more than once a year.