Unexplained Booms Rattle Bowling Green and Western Kentucky
"Said the night wind to the little lamb, 'Do you hear what I hear?'" - Noël Regney
STRANGE BOOM SOUNDS IN KENTUCKY
If the little lamb was in Kentucky, it might answer, "As a matter of fact, I do, and I have no idea what it is...just some big random BOOM sound." But is this big "boom" sound really random? Unfortunately, I do not have the answer to that question. More importantly, neither does Brandon Jarrett. But he's got the equipment all set up for us to take a listen and see what WE come up with.
In that clip, Jarrett referenced a February 27th Facebook post from SoKy Citizen News about this bizarre phenomenon.
ARE THERE ANY REASONABLE EXPLANATIONS FOR THESE BOOM SOUNDS?
An update from SoKy Citizen News in the comments section has me quite intrigued:
"Sometime late last night, we began to receive messages of citizens hearing & feeling a loud boom from throughout our area. These reports have come in from Bowling Green, Scottsville, Franklin, Brownsville, Glasgow, & as far out as Owensboro so far. We began tracking the event on social media around 11pm & are continuing to see more & more posts related to this mysterious sound."
So even as far away as Owensboro. That's interesting because I may have heard something recently that COULD be what Brandon Jarrett and SoKy Citizen News are discussing. Let me clarify something, though...if I heard it, I may not have thought it was anything out of the ordinary; I live near U.S. 231 and, as you know, trucks are on it all the time and are quite capable of making all SORTS of noises. Now that I know there are weird, unexplained booms in the atmosphere, I'll pay closer attention.
Later, SoKy Citizen News revealed that the boom sounds had expanded their reach:
"We can now confirm this was heard all throughout the Southern parts of the state. Reports are coming in from other areas of Kentucky including Hopkinsville, Somerset, & London Kentucky."
And then this:
"Through our law enforcement contacts, we are hearing unconfirmed reports that the FAA is possibly reporting that 2 satellites collided & the sound was from debris reentering the atmosphere."
Multiple comments feel like wild speculation, but at this point, do we have anything ELSE to go on?
IT'S NOT JUST IN KENTUCKY
Also noteworthy about Jarrett's video was his explanation that boom sounds of this nature have been heard elsewhere around the country--last fall in New Hampshire, for example.
And now let's zip down south for an update from New Orleans.
So, absent any plausible explanations, is it a REGIONAL occurrence--and by "regional", I mean east of the Mississippi? The answer to that is "no"; they're also experiencing the phenomenon in Arizona.
WHAT DO SCIENTISTS SAY?
So, is there ANY type of scientific reasoning behind something like this, even if it might not specifically cover THESE noises? The ever-reliable U.S. Geological Survey has that answer...to an extent. The agency really only explains what the sounds COULD be, and it reports that booms of this nature have been reported from all around the world.
While acknowledging that many of these unusual noises have legitimate explanations, the USGS says that others that might be head-scratchers (translation: we don't know WHAT the heck that is, for a certainty) can be the result of "frost quakes," small earthquakes, or less common causes like tsunami waves (that one doesn't explain Kentucky), lightning, or meteors (Good Lord).
I'm going to go out on a limb and say that we can eliminate meteors. Right? Right?
I bet they're sonic booms, although the frequency (no pun intended) of these occurrences might call that into question.
I feel like someday we will have an answer, whatever it may be, AND whether we like it or not.