Something has
changed. For some reason, reports of mysterious or otherwise unexplained
booms seem to be far less frequent than they have been in recent
memory. Over the past two years, I’ve had plenty of weeks where I’ve had
four or five mystery boom reports to share. Throughout the end of April
and May, however, reports of these anomalous acoustic disturbances
seemed to have slowed a bit. What’s with the sudden slowdown in mystery
booms?
On Thursday, April 24, residents of two villages in county Suffolk in eastern England reported being shocked a “mystery bang”
some initially feared was an automobile crash or industrial explosion.
While the case remains unsolved, aircraft scrambled from nearby Royal
Air Force bases have been known to cause similar booms in the past over the same area.
A Royal Air Force Typhoon at RAF Honington.
On the evening of Monday, April 29, residents of Hampton Roads, Virginia felt and heard a powerful boom.
The National Weather Service in nearby Wakefield issued a statement
shortly after claiming that with no meteorological explanations, the
boom was likely caused by a supersonic aircraft breaking the sound
barrier. Shortly after, the U.S. Navy issued a statement claiming one of its F/A-18 Super Hornets had indeed caused the boom:
Based on analysis of data
by fleet area control, surveillance facility and strike fighter wing
Atlantic, we can conclusively state the loud noise heard across Hampton
Roads around 6:30 p.m. Monday was a sonic boom generated by a U.S. F18
super hornet from Oceana.
Naval Air Station Oceana is located
just east of where the boom was reported. The base is the east coast
home of seventeen Navy strike fighter squadrons and Strike Fighter
Weapons School Atlantic.
That same night on April 29, houses in suburban Queensland, Australia were rattled by an “unexplained big boom”
which witnesses say caused the earth to shudder. “My wife and I were
inside when we experienced the house shuddering – it was so loud I could
not image any handheld device could possibly create that amount of
noise,” said Cornubia resident Shaun Pask. “It was not a small object
hitting a small part of the roof – it was like something fell from the
sky and it landed on our whole roof at the one time. It was like a sonic
boom hammered down on the entire roof and neighbours said they had the
same experience.”
A week later, people in Kingman, Arizona were terrified by a “loud boom”
that echoed throughout the town on the evening of Wednesday, May 8.
Some residents even reported finding debris strewn throughout city
roads. Nevertheless, Mohave County Sheriff’s Office Public Information
Specialist Anita Mortensen told local news reporters that there is
nothing to worry about. “We found nothing that would point to any
specific type of occurrence,” Mortensen said. “Nothing is confirmed at
this time, and the investigation is ongoing.”
On Monday, May 13, shocked residents of Sidney, Nebraska reported a “mysterious loud ‘boom’ sound”
which several residents described as similar to a cannon being
discharged. Sidney Police Chief Joe Aikens said that while police
received several calls about the noise, they have no idea where it came
from or what caused it. The Sidney police have asked residents to share
any information they have pertaining to the noise.
On May 16, hundreds of people throughout the Otago coastline in southeast New Zealand reported hearing a massive boom.
The New Zealand Herald reports that most witnesses thought the noise
could have been a meteorite or an earthquake, but shortly thereafter
local meteorological services reported that a single powerful lightning
strike was detected 50km (31 miles) out at sea which could have caused
the boom. Apparently, the strike was caused by a particularly
low-altitude type of thunderstorm called a squat thunderstorm which can cause thunder much louder than typical storms. Do you buy that explanation?
While there may have been fewer
incidents to report on this month, six reports in four weeks still isn’t
anything to shake a stick at. Interestingly, sonic booms seem to be
increasingly cited or suspected as a cause of these booms now that
winter is over and “frostquakes” are no longer a standby scapegoat.
Could more of these reports be explained by sonic booms? I’ve suspected
sonic booms from the start but with little to no evidence left in the
wake of these unexplained sonic phenomena, there’s no telling what could
be splitting the skies with such regularity.
Keep your eyes and ears upward.
No comments:
Post a Comment