What’s going on in America’s skies?
Last week, a series of booms rattled the American deep south without explanation. The mystery boom phenomenon continues this week with a trio of unexplained explosion noises which shook people in their homes from Chicago, Illinois to Panama City, Florida.
February 1, 2019 - Powerful Mystery Booms Continue to Rattle the US without Explanation
Powerful Mystery Booms Continue to Rattle the US without Explanation | Mysterious Universe
This week’s mystery booms were spread out throughout the eastern half of the United States, yet they all seemed to occur on the same day. Could they be connected?
In Chicago, Illinois, residents reported “loud booming” or popping noises late in the evening of Tuesday, January 29. Some people said the booming was so loud it shook the earth under their feet.
Our page is inundated with reports of this stuff,”
says Adam Lucio of Illinois Storm Chasers, “People have been reporting that they’ve been hearing these loud booms that sound like thunder or a car crash and in many cases, it’s scaring them because they aren’t sure what it is.” In the Chicago incident, so far the best theory is that the booms were caused by cryoseisms, sometimes called “
frost quakes.” These rare geological events are thought to occur when soil or bedrock breaks apart as groundwater freezes, but aren’t well understood.
While the cryoseism theory sounds plausible in icy Chicago, two other booms which occurred on the same day can’t so easily be explained.
Farther to the east in Pennsylvania, residents of south Philadelphia were awoken late on the evening of January 29 by a boom loud enough to shake their houses and windows. After Philadelphia police
received several reports of explosions, the U.S. Geological Service and the Department of Defense were contacted, but neither agency knows anything about the mystery booms.
Meanwhile, houses in Panama City, Florida were shaken on the same day by what was reported as a “loud bang,” although this one was reported in the afternoon. Curiously, some residents even reported feeling pressure changes and unexplained headaches after the noise was heard. Floridians took to social media to speculate about the cause of the bang, with explanations ranging from earthquakes to military activity. Neither the National Weather Service nor nearby Eglin Air Force Base had any information to share, but Bay County Emergency Management services are investigating the incident.
With no information from authorities, what are we left with?
Three mystery booms in three states all on the same day within twelve hours of each other. I don’t know about you, but I’m starting to get genuinely creeped out over the frequency of these mystery booms and the total lack of explanation. While no information has been offered up by any official channels, I’m confident that someone or some agency somewhere knows at least
something about these mystery booms – something they’re not sharing with the public. What’s more terrifying: the thought that clandestine military activity is causing sonic booms around the country, or that some unknown natural force might be behind the phenomenon?
This week’s mystery booms come to us from the American south, where residents of four separate counties in Kentucky reported hearing “an earth-shaking sound” on January 23. Emergency dispatchers in Jackson, Madison, Estill, and Rockcastle counties were called when residents heard and felt a mysterious boom loud enough to shake their homes’ foundations.
January 29, 2019 -
Latest Mystery Booms Rattle Kentucky and Arkansas
Latest Mystery Booms Rattle Kentucky and Arkansas | Mysterious Universe
“At about 6:19 pm yesterday evening a couple of people called in and said they heard this loud boom in the county. We went to check on it in the area, and we never found anything,” Jackson County Sheriff Paul Hays told local news station WKYT. While the cause of the Kentucky mystery boom is still unknown, locals have speculated it could have been anything from an electrical transformer exploding, a rock quarry blast, a sonic boom, or outgassing caused by hydraulic fracking.
A few states to the west in Arkansas, residents of Little Rock took to social media to ask if anyone might know what caused a deafening mystery boom a few hours later on the same night. According to local news station FOX 16, several residents thought it may have been an F/A-18
breaking the sound barrier overhead – or worse. North Little Rock local Collette Young says the sounds were eerily reminiscent of battle:
My family has served and have been to war – at one point I thought we might be under attack. I just want to know what it is so the next time I hear the sound I am not so startled.
Spokespersons for nearby Little Rock Air Force Base and the Clinton National Airport had no information about the mysterious boom. I just hope that more of these mystery booms can’t be explained by the same causes as those determined the case of recurring booms heard in Pennsylvania last year; in that incident, it turns out that a would-be domestic terrorist was
testing improvised explosives in remote areas. Could more of these mystery booms be of a similar origin, or is something stranger going on?
For whatever reasons, anomalous noises seem to have become a more frequently reported phenomenon recently. I have to wonder: are they actually occurring more often, or just being reported more often? From the now omnipresent
mystery booms to
strange hums which plague cities throughout the globe, the world abounds with strange sounds. What is making these anomalous noises, and why do they seem to be on the rise?
January 20, 2019 - Strange ‘Alien Sounds’ Heard Throughout U.S. East Coast
Strange 'Alien Sounds' Heard Throughout U.S. East Coast | Mysterious Universe
The latest spate of mystery noises occurred along the east coast of the US, where residents of four cities in four different states all seemed to have heard a similar terrifying and unexplained noise in recent weeks. While industrial causes are suspected in at least two of the cases, some residents aren’t buying those explanations.
Late last month, residents of the Mid Valley region of Pennsylvania near Scranton heard what were described as “jet engine-like noises” loud enough to wake them up in bed. The noises began around 8:00 am local time and lasted for over an hour. Borough Council President Gerald Crinella said the noises sounded like “fighter jets flying overhead” and was so loud it could be heard indoors. Shortly after news of the incident broke, officials at the Lackawanna Energy Center say the noises were caused by an emergency pressure valve opening unexpectedly, creating “the loudest noise they’ve ever heard come from the plant.”
Two weeks later, a strikingly similar noise was heard much farther to the south near Tampa, Florida. Residents of the Davis Islands heard terrifyingly loud jet engine noises around 4:00 am on January 11. Emergency officials say the noise was caused by the nearby TECO Bayside Power Station, which was venting steam.
On January 17, residents of Salisbury, North Carolina were startled by a “mysterious ‘alien’ sound” heard throughout the city around 11:00 pm. Cameron Glen told local news affiliate FOX 46 that the noise sounded like a mix between “a locomotive and a space shuttle taking off.” The noise was heard for around five minutes and caused dogs and coyotes to howl. Local officials have reached out to nearby airports and power stations, but so far no one has claimed responsibility.
Normally, there’d be no reason to doubt that power plants would have to occasionally let off incredible amounts of steam. However, the timing and similarities of these three incidents seems a bit
too coincidental to me. With reports of mysterious sonic booms on the rise, could these reports of jet engine noises be related? There’s no way law enforcement officials would lie to the press about anomalous events, is there?
A radar mystery that began in the skies over parts of the United States late last year has some experts questioning whether the government is involved in secret tests, while others think odd weather might be to blame.
January 18, 2019 - Radar Mysteries Over Maine, Florida, and the Midwest Leave Experts Baffled
Radar Mysteries Over Maine, Florida, and the Midwest Leave Experts Baffled | Mysterious Universe
In early December, the National Weather Service reported on what they termed an “anomaly” over parts of the midwestern United States. Here at
MU Brett Tingley
reported on the incident, which was observed on radar over parts of Illinois, Kentucky, and Indiana. “Whatever was on radar appeared to be as dense as a thunderstorm,” Brett wrote, “but with the night clear and temperatures low, that theory was ruled improbable.”
It was determined that the likely cause of the radar traces had been chaff, a substance composed mostly of aluminum that is released from aircraft during military operations and exercises to “confuse enemy radar.” However, as Brett noted at the time, meteorologist Greg Meffert with the NWS stated that he had “never seen [chaff] quite this hot.”
A few days later, Joseph Trevithick over at
The Warzone wrote about a second radar incident, reporting that similar anomalous traces had appeared over parts of Maine and Florida just two days later. The National Weather Service confirmed on their Twitter account that the new radar anomalies also resembled chaff, although Trevithick noted that the December radar blips seemed to last longer than chaff typically does.
“We have already reached out to the National Guard Bureau,” Trevithick wrote, “but at the time of writing, we have not received any additional information about this new incident over Maine. We’re reaching out to additional commands regarding the plume in Florida, as well.”
Since that time, little else was reported about the incidents. That is, until today, when Jon Webb with the
Evansville Courier & Press wrote about the peculiar December incidents. While they
do appear to be related to military operations involving chaff, a few questions do remain.
“Whatever it is, it’s exceedingly strange,”
Webb wrote, citing an email exchange he had with a member of the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) who told him, “We believe there is more to the story than what the FAA and military and publications such as ‘The War Zone’ are telling us.” (Does it matter to the unnamed MUFON investigator that even
The Warzone’s Trevithick noted having some problems of his own with the chaff theory? Maybe they didn’t read to the end of the article… who knows.)
“More NWS hubs will get confused,” Webb concluded, “And more conspiracies will be born.”
So what
was going on back in December, and does the assertion by Trevithick and others that certain aspects of the incidents didn’t resemble “typical” military exercises involving chaff amount to anything?
According to a Department of National Defense study from 2008, chaff is described as “a radiofrequency countermeasure released by military aircraft (ships and ground vehicles) to confuse enemy radar.” At the time this report was produced, chaff was used in approximately 26 U.S. states.
The report states that “the effective use of chaff can be maintained only by practicing in-flight deployments during training issues.” It goes on to say that, “The release of chaff into the environment during these exercises has raised concerns among both public-interest groups and the government regarding the fate and environmental impact of chaff particles.”
Concerns about the environmental effects of chaff go back to at least 1993, resulting in
a military report that indicated that there were few–if any–significant environmental risks associated with its use in military exercises. However, a 1998 report by the congressional General Accounting Office continued to argue that chaff could have negative environmental effects, in addition to
potentially interfering with civilian ATC radar systems.
More recently, controversies arose over the use of chaff last year in relation to the companies that produce it, and their potential future ownership by foreign entities. Presently, Esterline Defense Technologies (also known by the name Armtec) is the only company in the United States that produces chaff for use in military activities. In 2018, it was reported that Esterline/Armtec would be acquired by the UK-based TransDigm Group Inc. The news prompted a bipartisan letter from Congress to Jim Mattis, then-U.S. Defense Secretary, calling for the U.S. government to block the deal.
“TransDigm has repeatedly purchased companies that are the sole providers of Department of Defense items and engaged in price gouging,” the letter, co-authored by California Democratic representative Jackie Speier and North Carolina Republican Walter Jones, argued. “The abuses have been sufficiently common and severe enough to warrant a DoD inspector general investigation. Unsurprisingly, Esterline is the sole DoD chaff provider and one of two flare providers. The alarm bells should be ringing.”
In essence, the controversies surrounding chaff and its use seem to have been an ongoing point of contention for decades.
But in sum, do military exercises account for the odd radar returns that were occurring late last year? Also, could it be possible that the military is testing a new kind of chaff or similar substance, following the news that Esterline/Armtec could be acquired by TransDigm? There is no proof that this is the case, but if we were to speculate, it might account for some of the more unusual aspects reported with the December incidents, as well as why so many were reported around that time.
Then again, for all we know maybe the December radar incidents
were just good old, Esterline/Armtec chaff that was clouding up radar systems over the Midwest and parts of the East Coast. At present, no further information about the incidents has been made available to the public, nor have any similar radar anomalies been reported… so the rest is left (as per usual) to our imaginations.
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That sounds like an angry Son of Godzilla...
