“At this point, nobody seems to know.
The geologists say it's not in the ground. The Air Force says
it's not in the air. The astronomers say it's not from space.
So we're running out of options.”
- Jeffrey Braun, Ph.D., Physicist, Univ. of Evansville, Indiana
February 1, 2013 Cedar Hills, Utah - The boom phenomenon of the past two years is confusing because sometimes people have felt strong vibrations against the bottom of their shoes, while windows and floors shake. Other people more recently insist the booms are coming from the sky along with bright flashes of light. I have been marking a map of booms from October 17, 2012, to the end of January 2013. The map now has twenty-four different regions of the United States from the East Coast to Central California. Strangely, during this time line there have been no publicly reported booms right along the Pacific Coast as there were repeatedly in the first half of 2012.
This latest round of unexplained booms started October 17, 2012, when residents southwest of Providence in Warwick, Rhode Island, were shaken in houses and buildings by a loud “bang” that some described as sounding “like the beginning of war.”
Then on December 3rd at 11:25 PM Eastern, hundreds of people between Warwick and Somerset, Massachusetts, reported hearing the sound of a huge explosion simultaneously with a bright flash of light. Authorities had no answers about what had happened.
Narragansett Bay from Providence to Conimicut, Warwick and Barrington, Rhode Island.
What's Causing Mysterious Lights, Loud Booms
and Strange Hum in Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island?
“The night of December 3, residents from Warwick, Rhode Island,
to Somerset, Massachusetts, heard a loud explosion with a bright light
and a long sustained hum,” the latest in a series of strange lights, booms and hum.
- Don DePardo, Lieutenant, Johnston Fire Department, Johnston, Rhode Island
Between December 4-6, 2012, loud booms were reported in five states: Alabama, Georgia, Texas, Oklahoma, and Arizona.
3) Auburn, Alabama, December 4, 2013
On Tuesday, December 4th, around midnight in Auburn, Alabama, a loud boom was heard over a large radius near a mobile home park. Officers sent to the area could not find a source for the boom.
4) Columbia County, Georgia, east of Auburn, December 4 - 6, 2012
In Georgia from December 4 - 6, loud booms shocked residents. One man heard a loud rumble and found that his driveway had been lifted up and the road and sidewalk near his home were cracked. But no seismic activity registered by the U. S. Geological Survey.
5) Navarro, Freestone and Limestone Counties, Texas, December 4, 2012, 3:09-5 PM
Also on Tuesday, December 4th, afternoon around 3:00 p.m., residents in both Texas and Oklahoma reported tremors accompanied by a rumbling sound. Two hours later, additional heavier tremors in the same vicinity were reported.
But still no seismic activity registered by USGS.
“We started getting calls at 3:09 p.m. (Tuesday, December 4, 2012),” said Eric Meyers, Navarro County Emergency Coordinator. “The first calls were north of Corsicana in the Hickory Hollow area with two separate residents out there reporting unusual tremors being felt along with a rumbling type of noise.”
After checking with the U.S. Geological Survey website, Meyers also checked with the National Weather Service and state emergency management offices.
“About two hours later, approximately five o’clock, there were additional reports in the same area of heavier tremors, the same vicinity, the same residents,” Meyers said. Another report came from the western part of the county, near Navarro Mills.
After the second round of reports, Meyers posted it on Facebook and suddenly there were more reports, but coming from all over, including Streetman, Purdon, Pursley and Dawson. Some of the reports came from as far away as Freestone and Limestone counties. The line runs about 50 to 60 miles long, and the tremors didn’t act like any other thing except perhaps earthquake booms, which are shallow sometimes undetectable tremors similar to what’s been happening locally.
The range and the description of houses “popping” and shaking didn’t seem to fit anything, including the disturbances reported around fracking drill-sites.
“This is an unexplained event likely of a natural origin,” Meyers said. “We can’t come up with a point of origin or a cause or explanation of why this is happening.”
Still, the National Earthquake Information Center, part of the U.S. Geological Survey, located in Golden, Colo., didn’t see anything on its monitors, according to Don Blakeman, an earthquake analyst at the center.
“We had a call earlier, apparently folks have been feeling something out there for about a day, but we couldn’t find anything, we didn’t see anything on our records,” Blakeman said. “That doesn’t mean something hasn’t happened, but we don’t know what it is.”
6) Verde Valley, Arizona, December 4, 2012
That same day further west between 3 and 5 PM in Verde Valley, Arizona, about 100 miles north of Phoenix, residents heard six or seven fast, loud booms that scared them, but again there was no explanation from government, military or business authorities.
Also on December 4th beginning at 3:09 PM Central near Corsicana, Texas, southeast of Dallas, and throughout Navarro, Freestone and Limestone Counties, many residents made 911 calls for the next two hours about rumbling noise, unusual ground tremors and houses “popping and shaking.” USGS says there was no seismic activity and no one else had answers either. Adding to the mystery were other boom reports further east in Auburn, Alabama, and Columbia County, Georgia.
“It was just, ‘boom-boom-boom-boom-boom all over the Verde Valley.”
- Jean Swesey, Resident of Cottonwood, Arizona
Big Bang Theories: Mysterious Booms Rock Verde Valley Verde Independent 12/5/2012 by Steve Ayers, Staff Reporter:
The Verde Valley includes about 714 square miles located in the geographic
center of Arizona, about 100 miles north of the Phoenix metropolitan area.
VERDE VALLEY - Just before 5 p.m. Tuesday, December 4, 2012, a loud boom, followed by a second blast that shook windows from Cornville to Jerome, rocked the Verde Valley.
By Wednesday, the noises, whatever they were, were all the buzz.
"It was a whole series of booms," Jean Swesey said. "Up to six or seven. It was fast, it went loud. We were quiet and then my daughter down the hall screams really loud, ‘Did you hear that?' I sat there for a second and I heard another set."
"There was a boom and I thought, thunder. But as I was looking around for clouds I heard a second one that sounded like it came from Mingus Mountain. Then I went to see if the spring on my garage door opener had broke," said Camp Verde resident John Stephens.
Kristi Gagnon, fire marshal for the Camp Verde Fire District, said she and fire Chief Clayton Young were in the administrative offices when they heard the noises. Having grown up in California, Gagnon thought it was an earthquake.
"It had that similar sound but nothing was shaking and the ground wasn't moving. It was interesting for sure," said Gagnon.
Gagnon said she did get a report from a resident living near the Camp Verde Library who said the noise actually "shook stuff off the shelf."
Their curiosity eventually drove them outside the building, believing something had hit the roof, but found nothing there.
Chief Joe Moore with the Clarkdale Fire District heard it, too, and reported that it sounded just like dynamite.
Whatever it was, it did not appear to be isolated to the Verde Valley.
Darby Martin with the Camp Verde Marshal's Office said she received a call from her son who was working for a drilling company, core drilling at the Bagdad copper mine, who reported hearing a similar noise two hours earlier.
"He said that around 3 p.m. his crew heard two loud booms. They thought there was an earthquake at the mine," she said.
The Yavapai County Sheriff's Office had deputies in the area who either heard it or tried to respond to resident calls. They found nothing.
Employees at the Verde Independent and Bugle's parent company's offices in Yuma reported hearing two loud booms and went outside believing a vehicle had blown a couple of tires on the roadway in front of the building.
Many who heard the noise speculated it was a sonic boom.
However, Luke Air Force Base information office Theresa Walker noted in an email to the Verde Independent that the base had no aircraft in Verde Valley air space at the time the noise was reported. Walker did not, however, comment on aircraft from other military installations.
"Should you wish to pursue the query further, you can call the FAA as they control that airspace and may be able to assist you," Walker suggested.
A month later right after New Year’s on Thursday night, January 3rd, people in Red Bank, South Carolina, and all the way north to Eagle River and Mat-Su Valley, Alaska, a few miles north of Anchorage heard very loud booms.
7) Red Bank, South Carolina, January 3, 2013
8) Anchorage, Alaska, January 3, 2013
Elmendorf and Richardson Air Force Bases each said they had no aircraft in the skies making sonic booms. There was no seismic activity and no thunderstorm weather. But 26 hours later near Craig, Alaska, down the coast southeast of Anchorage near Vancouver, a 7.5 magnitude earthquake hit at midnight going into Saturday, January 5th.
Channel 2, KTUU-TV in Anchorage began receiving postings about a loud, rumbling boom on its Facebook page Thursday evening, January 3, 2013, between 8 PM and 10 PM, heard by people ranging from Eagle River 15 miles northeast of Anchorage to the Mat-Su Valley 35 miles north of Anchorage. This was approximately 26 hours before the 7.5 magnitude earthquake hit 71 miles west of Craig, Alaska, in southeastern Alaska. Are they different phenomena, or linked?
26 Hours Before 7.5 Quake, Unexplained Rumbling
Boom in South Central Alaska
“My (neighbor’s kids) looked for what was making that loud noise
and they could not see anything- just kept hearing the loud noise.”
- KTUU Viewer Michelle Thomas Hanks
Google pointer on left is Anchorage, Alaska, not far from Eagle River and the Mat-Su
Valley where a loud rumbling boom was reported Thursday evening, January 3, 2013,
between 8 PM and 10 PM. The red circle on right is Craig, Alaska, where the
7.5 magnitude earthquake hit 71 miles west of Craig at midnight
local time going into Saturday, January 5, 2013.
KTUU-TV Facebook comments from Eagle River and Mat-Su Valley, Alaska Residents On Thursday, January 3, 2013, between 8 - 10 PM local time.
- “I live in Peters Creek and I heard several loud noises outside and then muted the television,” Channel 2 viewer Rachel Lee wrote. “After about a minute of silence, there was a rumble and my chandelier started to shake. I thought it might have been an earthquake but I looked online and there weren't any listed at that time; it was 8:05 p.m.”
- “About the only thing I can compare it to is someone going down a dirt road really fast,” viewer Deb Spaulding wrote. “(I)t was that sort of rumble.”
- “I was in the garage and I heard it. It (lasted) for a while,” wrote viewer Michelle Thomas Hanks. “At first I thought it was the wind until I stepped outside… My (neighbor’s kids) looked for what was making that loud noise and they could not see anything just kept hearing the loud noise.”
Authorities Deny Sonic Boom,
Volcanic Activity, or Noise Complaints to FAA
Elmendorf and Richardson AFB
John Pennell, Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson’s Chief of Media Operations, told KTUU-TV the base wasn’t flying any of its supersonic fighter jets capable of causing sonic booms Thursday night, with only subsonic C-17 Globemaster III transports flying until 9:30 p.m.
“Although they are loud, I don’t think anybody’s going to mistake them for a sonic boom,” Pennell said.
FAA
Val Jokela, a Federal Aviation Administration community-affairs representative in Anchorage, told KTUU-TV the FAA’s regional operations center did not receive any noise complaints overnight January 3 to 4, 2013.
Anchorage Police Department
Anchorage Police Department spokesperson Dani Myren told KTUU-TV no noise complaints were listed for Thursday, January 3 to Friday, January 4, 2013. Dispatchers on duty overnight didn’t relay any reports of the booms to the next shift, which came on duty at 7 a.m.
Alaska State Troopers
Alaska State Troopers spokesperson Megan Peters told KTUU-TV that troopers did not receive any noise complaints from the region and that AST dispatchers also did not relay any updates during a 6 a.m. shift change.
“There wasn’t anything there big enough for them to pass on or be told about,” Peters said.
Alaska Volcano Observatory
The Alaska Volcano Observatory told KTUU-TV it had no reports Friday of the noise itself or any volcanic activity that might have caused it. The West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center’s most recent listed earthquake was a magnitude 4.6 temblor on Dec. 24, centered 40 miles northwest of Valdez.
National Weather Service
The National Weather Service forecast office in Anchorage told KTUU-TV there was some shower activity in the area Thursday, but no severe weather conditions.
KTUU-TV said that with no immediate answers on the matter Rachel Lee, the Peters Creek viewer, echoed the confusion of many people about the source of the noise in her Facebook comment:
“It's strange no one knows what caused it.”
Not long after midnight on January 5th, back across the U. S. in Salem and Marblehead, Massachusetts, residents called 911 at 1:30 AM EST to report a very loud “crack-of-lightning” boom and bright flash of light that were caught on a video security camera. That night the weather was clear and the weather service records confirmed there were no thunderstorms anywhere in the region.
9) Salem, Massachusetts, January 5, 2013, 1:30 AM EST
10) Marblehead, Massachusetts, January 5, 2013, 1:30 AM EST
That January 5, 1:30 AM event is on this video, followed below by link to Weather Service Record.
Google pointer at Salem, Massachusetts, forming a triangular geography
with Marblehead and Swampscott, where loud booms were also heard
on January 8 at 10:22 PM EST in the Clifton Avenue area.
West from Salem, Marblehead and Swampscott, Massachusetts, between January 7 and 9, 2013, loud booms and bright flashes of light were reported in the Tri-State region of southern Illinois, southern Indiana and northwestern Kentucky. Jeffrey Braun, Ph.D. physicist at the Univ. of Evansville, Indiana summed up the investigation: “At this point, nobody seems to know. The geologists say it's not in the ground. The Air Force says it's not in the air. The astronomers say it's not from space. So we're running out of options.”
11) Evansville, Indiana, January 7-9, 2013
12) Southern Illinois, January 9, 2013
13) NW Kentucky, January 9, 2013
January 7, 2013
To: earthfiles@earthfiles.com Unexplained Booms in SW Indiana
I noticed you have stories of several states reporting unexplained, loud booms/explosions. We have been experiencing this in Evansville, IN as well.
The first one occurred Monday night, Jan. 7, 2013, just before midnight. It was heard throughout at least 2 counties, some reports claiming it even rattled their windows. I live in Newburgh, Indiana, and heard it while lying in bed. It was such a disturbing sound, it froze me. It didn't rattle the windows, but it was extremely loud. My first thought was that a train had derailed from the tracks about 2 miles from my home. I think one of the most alarming things to me was that it was so loud, but it still sounded relatively far away.
I didn't realize until the next morning that hundreds of people over at least 40 square miles heard it. Nor that there were reports of similar happenings in other parts of the country. People reported hearing it at least once last night [ Tuesday, January 8, 2013] as well. I, however, did not.
People are pretty shaken up about it here... mainly because no one seems to have even the slightest explanation. And it seems to be recurring. [ See media links in Websites below.]
January 9, 2013
To: earthfiles@earthfiles.com Update-Booms in Southern Indiana rattle entire region
Hi, Linda,
Here is a follow up to the e-mail I sent to you earlier. The last several days there have been mysterious booms reported across the region. The story has been reported in all of the major media outlets in Southern Indiana, Western Kentucky and Southern Illinois. My family, neighbors, wife's co-workers and myself have heard the booms daily and nightly.
[ See Websites below for media reports.]
The Evansville Police and Fire Departments have been dispatched nightly to investigate "explosions in the area" and have found nothing. Even the Regional Emergency Management Office has been receiving and investigating these calls.
The booms have continued throughout the day and into this evening as I write this email.
If you have any questions or would like more information please feel free to email me at any time. G. Evansville, Indiana
A lot of Tri-Staters are asking the same question Wednesday night as they were Tuesday - what are those boom sounds they hear and feel late at night?
14 News sat down with USI Professor of Geology, Paul Doss. Doss has been looking at the seismometer for the past several days.
"Earthquake energy is an acoustic energy, but it would not be transmitted out of the crust and into the atmosphere. When I look over the last few days, at these times, nothing, nothing," Doss said.
If it's not underground, perhaps the sounds originate in the sky. A sonic boom from military aircrafts? The Indiana Air Corp says that's also not possible.
"We didn't have any training events. The State of Indiana and the Air Guard, they have A10s based out of Ft. Wayne and they're not capable of executing that type of activity," said Lt. Mark Weaver.
Some residents say the sounds are coming from space. Maybe meteors which would certainly be strong enough to shake homes. But Professor Jeff Braun says the lack of visible evidence quickly disproves this theory.
"Meteors can cause sonic booms when they come in, but almost always they're accompanied by a visible fireball," Braun told 14 News.
Some people say tannerite, an exploding target used at outdoor gun ranges have a loud boom sound. But local gun store owners say it doesn't pack a punch powerful enough to be heard in several different parts of the city, let alone across the nation.
"At this point, nobody seems to know. The geologists say it's not in the ground, the Air Force says it's not in the air, the astronomers say it's not from space, so we're running out of options," Braun said.
During that same time period, beginning on January 8, 2013, even further west in Utah’s Weber and Utah Counties north and south of Salt Lake City, a series of loud booms began off and on until January 10, accompanied by bright flashes of light in the nights of January 8 and 9.
14) Weber County, Utah, including Ogden, January 8 - 9, 2013
15) Utah County including Cedar Hills, January 8 - 10, 2013
January 8, 2013, around 9 PM Mountain, loud booms shook residents
in Weber and Utah Counties (black circles).
January 9, 2013
To: earthfiles@earthfiles.com Loud booms heard again in Utah
I see on your website, you have posted an article about the loud, unexplained booms heard here in Utah, on January 8th! I just wanted to share with you, that they were again heard here tonight on the 9th!
I got a text message from a guy I work with, whom I was talking to about last night's booms, and he said that they again occurred at around 9:06 PM this evening! That's 2 nights in a row!
There is no dynamiting going on around here in Utah, as far as the News reports indicate! Nothing is coming from the Kennecott mine south of Salt Lake City - and, the next closest area I know of that might explain it would be the mining area in Elko, Nevada. But that is over 200 miles away.
Something seems to be afoot, somewhere! They are not "sonic booms"! Any ideas?
At his home in Cedar Hills, a small suburb 15 miles northwest of Provo, 35-year-old James Brown was caring for his new-born son and 2-year-old toddler - while his wife, Amy, worked at a local elementary school. The couple moved there three years ago and had never heard or seen anything as strange as the booms that repeated from Tuesday, January 8 to Thursday, January 1, day and night, plus bright flashes of light on the nights of January 8 and January 9.
Even stranger, a week before on New Year’s Day, the family was driving home from holiday celebration at a relative's house. At 7 PM in American Fork, not far from their Cedar Hills home, suddenly in the dark sky appeared pumpkin-orange lights in the pattern of a triangle not far above their car. Amazed, Jim Brown pulled over to the side of the road near the Mount Timpanogos Utah Mormon Temple.
The Mount Timpanogos Utah Temple built in 1996 for The Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in American Fork, Utah. The spire is topped by the
Angel Moroni that visited Joseph Smith, Jr., on numerous occasions, beginning
September 21, 1823. According to Smith, the angel Moroni was the guardian of golden plates,
which Latter Day Saints (LDS) believe were the source material for the Book of Mormon,
and that the golden plates are buried in a hill called Cumorah in western New York near Smith's home.
Temple at map marker in American Fork near Cedar Hills
at the foot of Mt. Timpanogos a thousand feet higher than Provo (lower right circle)
and about 40 miles southeast of Salt Lake City. Above and below, the bright pink
circle 15 miles northwest of the temple and Cedar Hills at Bluffdale is the site
of the million square foot National Security Agency's Utah Data Center
scheduled to go on line by Fall 2013 to gather all digital and other transmissions
in the United States and around the world that the NSA deems necessary.
The UDC will be the largest spy operation ever built by humans.
Interview:
Play MP3 interview.
James E. Brown, 35, Corporate Finance Manager, Cedar Hills, Utah, about 40 miles SE of Salt Lake City: “We were driving by there and within about 200 to 300 feet from us – less than a football field away. Right above us were these bright orange lights. And I pulled the car over, rolled the window down and my wife was looking through the windshield and there were three lights – three orange globes in a triangle formation.
Jim Brown: “A drawing superimposed on actual site in daytime photo of where the
Triangle of orange lights was that my wife and I saw at 7 PM Mtn. on the night of
January 1, 2013. The view is north-northwest. Our car was pulled over on the south
side of the street, facing to the East. This is the exact place where we pulled over.
Then the Triangle pivoted on the upper light into a horizontal position before it
moved off. I couldn't hear any sound, even when I got out of the car.”
Illustration by Jim Brown for Earthfiles.com.
And I would say they were stationary when we first saw it. Hard to tell how large it was because it was at night. Stayed stationary for about ten seconds. The bottom two lights actually started rising up together until the triangle became parallel with the ground.
SO THE TRIANGLE PIVOTED STAYING IN THE SAME TRIANGULAR SHAPE, BUT IT PIVOTED ON THE TOP LIGHT AND NOW IT’S IN THE SKY HORIZONTALLY.
Exactly. So for ten seconds, it was stationary and made that pivot. The pivot was done in about a 5-second period. So, it was fairly quickly. At that point, it appeared to be flying off. I could not see if the lights were affixed to anything or not. It flew off at a pretty good clip – I would say probably less than 100 mph, but close to that.
IF YOU WERE PICKING A COLOR, WHAT ORANGE WOULD IT BE?
It would be about the same orange color as a pumpkin.
WHEN IT WAS 50 TO 100 FEET ABOVE YOU, COULD YOU OR YOUR WIFE HEAR ANY SOUND?
Absolutely no sound at all.
YOU OPENED THE DOOR OR THE WINDOW?
Yeah, when it was pivoting, I opened the door and stood up out on the street and tried to get a video – which didn’t happen (laughed).
OK, AT THAT POINT YOU DID NOT HEAR ANYTHING, EVEN WHEN IT WAS PIVOTING?
Not at all.
YOU HAD A PROBLEM GETTING YOUR CAMERA?
I didn’t get it out in time. I didn’t even get a picture of it.
January 8, 2013 - Booms and Bright Flash
SO NOW GO FORWARD IN TIME FROM THE 7 PM, JANUARY 1, 2013, ORANGE TRIANGLE SIGHTING TO THE NEXT EVENT.
OK, the next event was January 8th. So that Tuesday, my wife – she’s a schoolteacher who teaches third grade – she was at school teaching and I was at home with my two kids. It was in the early afternoon and my infant was asleep and I was getting ready to put my 2-year-old in bed. I thought there was an earthquake. It was a BOOM! that lasted for about 5 seconds – a boom and a rumble.
The University of Utah has online seismic tracking. I pulled it up and there was nothing recorded. It was weird! It did not seem like an earthquake. It did not seem like it was coming from the ground. It seemed like it was coming from the sky from above me. It was a deep rumbling, but from the sky. I heard three of those booms in the next two hours. The third boom shook my house, my windows and lasted for 20 seconds and I thought we were getting ready for a major earthquake. It was very unnerving!
WHAT TIMES WOULD THE THREE EVENTS ON JANUARY 8TH HAVE BEEN?
Started at 1 PM and went to about 3 PM.
ABOUT HOW MUCH TIME BETWEEN EACH ONE?
Well, there were three events in those two hours. The first one happened around 1 PM. The next one happened about 45 minutes after that. And then the third one happened again about a half hour after that.
Sounded Like A War
EACH TIME IT WAS STRONGER?
The third one was the strongest for sure. The first two were about the same – they lasted for about 5 seconds. Very loud and seemed sonic! Like there was a war happening above me is what it sounded like.
A WAR?
Yeah, like exploding above me is what it sounded like.
DID YOU GO OUTSIDE?
I did. I did and looked around. I did not see anything and had no idea what it was.
WERE ANY OF YOUR NEIGHBORS GOING OUTSIDE BECAUSE THEY WERE HEARING ALSO?
I didn’t see any of them, no. But this was just the beginning though! It gets much more interesting after that. In the evening of that same day on Tuesday, we heard a couple of booms. They were more singular booms and it started about 9 PM. And I had told my wife when she got home about this. She said she did not feel anything down in Highland where she works, which is only 5 minutes away from me down in the valley a little bit more.
ONE OF THE THINGS ABOUT THIS PHENOMENON IS HOW FOCUSED IT CAN BE WHERE SOMEBODY IN A HOUSE OR TWO IS EXPERIENCING WHAT THEY THINK IS SOMETHING SO LOUD THAT EVERYBODY SHOULD HEAR FOR MILES AROUND AND YET NOBODY ELSE HEARS.
Hun, that’s interesting.
AND IT’S IN THE EVENING OF JANUARY 8TH AND YOUR WIFE IS HOME WITH ONE OF YOUR CHILDREN. WHAT HAPPENED AROUND 9 PM?
Well, then we started hearing several booms and some were like singular booms – like a BOOM! Like an explosion, but there is no rumble. And then there were other occurrences where there was a rumble. The first couple that I heard - because I had told my wife about it earlier in the day. She said she didn’t hear anything or feel anything.
The first couple I noticed, she didn’t even notice. And then all of a sudden, there was one. It was a loud rumble that shook the house a little and my wife said, ‘OK, that’s what you’re talking about!’ (laughs) and that was after 9 pm and it continued, I would say four to five instances from then until a little after 11 PM.
Bright Flash Lighted Up Bedroom Window
And a little after 11 PM, we were upstairs in our bedroom watching TV. We were just getting ready to go to sleep and our windows – we have a fairly large window that faces directly east. We have our wood blinds closed with the curtains over the top of that because we have a street light right outside our house here. There was a flash as if someone was standing on our roof next to our windows with a flash on a camera right in our window. It was extremely bright!
IN THAT CLEAR, STILL NIGHT, JIM BROWN’S WIFE, AMY, ALSO SAW THE BRIGHT FLASH OF LIGHT AT THEIR BEDROOM WINDOW FOLLOWED BY A LOUD BOOM THAT SCARED HER.
Amy Brown, 33, Local Elementary School Employee, Cedar Hills, Utah: “All of a sudden there was a flash outside as if there was like someone taking a picture outside of our house – just this really random flash. It was almost like lightning, too, but there was no thunder.
IT WAS CLEAR WEATHER?
Yeah. And there was a loud boom and then that loud rumbling again afterwards.
WHEN YOU HEARD THE BOOMS, WHAT WOULD BE THE CLOSEST EMOTION OR THOUGHT ABOUT WHAT WAS HAPPENING THAT CAME INTO YOUR MIND?
I was scared. I was scared for the safety of my family.”
Jim Brown: “And I immediately heard a very large boom that went along with that flash. And that was the one that really was unnerving. I jumped up to the window and I thought, ‘OK, is there a car light out there? Or is somebody actually out there taking a picture in the front yard?’ But there was nobody out there. It was just very odd. There was a very ominous feeling to it.
OMINOUS?
Very ominous feeling. Like something is wrong! It felt like I was a 5-year-old, who was asked to go down into the dark, scary basement to get something and saw something and had to run out of the basement. It was that type of a feeling. It was just ominous! Something’s wrong. Something is almost like you want to go into fright or flight mode, but there is no explanation as to why.
THAT WAS AROUND 11 PM, THE FLASH OF LIGHT AT YOUR WINDOW AND THE OMINOUS FEELING. WHAT ELSE HAPPENED?
Well, we watched TV for a little while longer and my wife fell to sleep. Our 2-year-old was not sleeping well at night. He generally sleeps really well. This week he hasn’t been sleeping at all. He’s been in our bed for hours through the night. I don’t know if it’s because of the booms scaring him? Or whatever, but he would wake up screaming and come into our room and want to sleep with us.
January 9, 2013 - 4 AM
Another Boom and Bright Flash
It was a little bit after 4 AM, maybe closer to 4:30 AM, where I had not fallen to sleep yet and again the same thing happened. I saw a very bright flash and heard another boom. And this one came along with a rumble right after it as well.
WHAT DID YOUR NEIGHBOR SAY THAT HE HAD HEARD AND SEEN?
He had heard the same thing. He didn’t see any flashes, though. However, one of his buddies up in Salt Lake apparently called him or texted him, freaked out, and he had seen the same thing and didn’t know what was going on.
HAD THE PERSON FAR AWAY FROM YOU SEEN ALSO THE BRIGHT FLASH OF LIGHT?
Yeah, he apparently was awakened, saw the flashes of light.
HOW FAR IS THE OTHER PERSON THAT HE KNEW WHO HAD TALKED WITH HIM ABOUT SEEING THE FLASH OF LIGHT AND HEARING THE BOOM?
He lives in Salt Lake City about – as you are driving – almost an hour from where I’m at. It’s probably 40 miles.
SO THAT WOULD MEAN THAT THIS FLASH AND BOOM WAS COVERING A HUGE GEOGRAPHIC AREA?
Oh, yeah! What I found out was that most of the people who saw the light were up in Ogden. Ogden is a few hours drive. It’s extremely far away up by Hill Air Force Base. I mean, it’s no where near where I’m at. You’ve got to go over a couple of mountain ranges to get up there from where I’m at.
January 10, 2013 - Booms, Rumbles
and Orange Lights Again
As for my experience here, Thursday, January 10, in the early afternoon, the same thing happened again. I heard a couple of booms, a couple of rumbles. It’s almost like whatever was making the sound was causing the ground to rumble. It was an indescribable sound. It’s really hard to explain.
[Before then] on Wednesday night, I had to go do errands down at Walmart driving down this hill and right in front of me, but a good distance off. I’d say probably about five miles in front of me I see the same light that I saw on New Year’s Day with my wife.
THIS IS THE ORANGE TRIANGLE?
Yes. But it was just one orange light this time instead of the three in a triangle. And it came out of the cloud – it was right around sunset just before 6 PM. It came out of the cloud very fast! And then it stopped. And then when it stopped, it flared up really bright! I mean this thing was so bright, it easily paled any light I’ve ever seen in the valley.
I pulled over to the side of the road very quickly. I was right next to a street light. It was brighter than the street light from my view. And it stayed that bright for about five seconds and then it dimmed down again to just the orange light I had originally seen the week before. And then it started flying off to the north.
So this time I pulled my camera out while the light was five miles away, but the camera did not pick up the light at all. But I kept the video rolling and about a minute later, the same exact thing happened. A few miles to the south of that, a light came streaking out of the cloud and stopped, flared up really bright and then dimmed down and flew off as an orange ball of light that I had seen before in the same northerly direction.
WHEN YOU WERE SEEING THE ORANGE LIGHT AROUND 6 PM ON JANUARY 9TH BRIGHTEN TWICE AND MOVING FAST, DID IT REINFORCE YOUR OMINOUS SENSE OF WAR?
Yeah, it was definitely like something was going on, but I could not tell what it was. It seemed like it was all orchestrated some how.”
On January 29, 2013, Jim Brown sent me a summary of highly strange military-style air traffic around his Cedar Hills, Utah, home since the booms and light flashes.
January 29, 2013
Linda Moulton Howe, Earthfiles.com
Earthfiles@earthfiles.com
Description of Helicopter Activity following Boom and Lights Anomaly
Tuesday, January 29, 2013 from Jim Brown
I was a witness to anomalous activities on January the 8th and 9th, involving various unknown audible and tangible booms accompanied by rumbles and light activity. The weekend afterward I was interviewed over the phone by Linda Moulton Howe, Reporter and Editor, Earthfiles.com, in which the very next morning began several days of abnormal helicopter activity in and around my neighborhood.
This activity persisted for several days. The helicopter would fly very low to the ground, less then 200 to 300 feet over the homes in the neighborhood moving at a very fast pace. Often the flight pattern would consist of circling the neighborhood and then leaving the vicinity, only to return minutes later, with a search-type of pattern over the adjacent mountainside directly east of our neighborhood. The Search techniques appeared to be extremely aggressive, reminiscent of a military-style search and rescue tactic. Flying over an area and then looping back and diving on a location, pulling up and hovering at treetop level for 5-10 seconds. This action of diving on a location was repeated around 15 times over areas of the mountainside that would appear to be void anything worth watching besides snow, cedars and some wildlife.
On two occasions while observing this from my front yard, I also noticed a second helicopter at very high altitude slowly circling as if monitoring from above. It was too high to be heard or identified. The helicopter that was performing the low level maneuvers was at times very close to me and I was comfortably able to study its appearance. It was black without any markings - nothing written or artistic. It had completely blacked out windows as well. It is a medium-sized helicopter, with a large engine compartment on top. It had what appeared to be an addition to its belly that was white-shaped similar to a dull hull of a boat with a mount in the center that appeared to be a 2-foot-circular encasing distinctive to what I have seen Search and Rescue helicopters use for infrared camera mounts. The difference on the camera mount was that is was directly in the center of the hull, whereas similar mounts I have seen in the past on Search and Rescue, Law Enforcement, and Wildlife Management helicopters would have the mounts on the nose, or off of the side of the skid. The helicopter had skids, an oval-shaped nose, and a swept back rear rotor with the fin at about a 45-degree angle.
I went to the internet and spent some hours searching through helicopter identification charts thinking I would fairly easily be able to identify the make and model of the aircraft, but surprisingly I've had a very hard time being able to do so. I have found several helicopter types that have similarities, but to my dismay I have not been able to identify that helicopter as of yet.
Jim Brown
Since the loud booms and bright light flashes in south and north of Salt Lake City, Utah, more booms have been reported since January 16th in Montana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee, Missouri, North Carolina,Texas and Michigan and Bakersfield, California.
16) Great Falls, Montana, January 16 - 23, 2013
17) Evening Shade, Arkansas, January 19, 2013
18) Mendenhall, Mississippi, January 19, 2013
19) West Morriston, Tennessee, January 23, 2013
“It sounded like a hand grenade going off underground,
then you could feel the ground vibrate."
- Jimmy Standifer, Hamblen County Deputy Sheriff
Morristown, Hamblen County, Tennessee,
is 48 miles northeast of Knoxville.
On Wednesday, January 23, 2013, between 1:00 and 3:30 AM Central, many West Morristown, Tennessee, residents called 911 to report “loud booms.” In some cases, people said it sounded “like someone was breaking into my home.” Hamblen County Sheriff Deputies could not find the source of the booms and other noises. The only working hypothesis now is that perhaps a cave beneath the Meadows subdivision collapsed. But no one knows for certain what happened and the U. S. Geological Survey has no data of seismic activity at the time.
20) Centralia, Missouri, January 24, 2013
21) Bend, North Carolina, January 25, 2013
22) Alice, Texas, January 26, 2013
23) Indian River, Michigan, January 28, 2013
24) Bakersfield, California, January 31, 2013, 3:30 AM
January 31, 2013
EARTHFILES@EARTHFILES.COM Loud boom heard in Bakersfield, California
This morning at about 3:30 AM, tons of people all over Bakersfield reported a very loud boom that woke people from their sleep and shook their windows. Some said they also heard it earlier around midnight.
Then today a local news station reported it as testing of an explosive at China Lake at 5 AM. [ Naval Air Weapons Station (NAWS) China Lake]
That was not the time that everyone reported hearing it, and China Lake is much too far. It is 100 miles northeast of Bakersfield and people that live closer to China Lake did not even hear it.
A few months ago we also had an incidence of multiple strange lights in the sky that could not be explained away.
If any Earthfiles viewer has more information about mysterious booms, please email: earthfiles@earthfiles.com. All requests for confidentiality are honored.
For further Earthfiles reports about unexplained booms, please see Earthfiles Archive.
• 01/25/2013 — Updated: Unexplained Loud Booms Persist in United States
• 01/11/2013 — Part 1: Could Computer-Interfaced Communication with Other Realms Be Linked to Strange, Unexplained Booms?
• 01/11/2013 — Part 2: Could Computer-Interfaced Communication with Other Realms Be Linked to Strange, Unexplained Booms?
• 01/11/2013 — Part 3: Could Computer-Interfaced Communication with Other Realms Be Linked to Strange, Unexplained Booms?
• 01/05/2013 — 26 Hours Before 7.5 Quake, Unexplained Rumbling Boom in Southcentral Alaska
• 12/08/2012 — What's Causing Mysterious Lights, Loud Booms and Strange Hum in Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island?
• 10/17/2012 — Loud Boom and 3-D Radar of Mysterious Aerial Object in NW Louisiana
• 08/26/2012 — Updated: More Unexplained Boom Sounds from Sweden to Calif: What's Happening Now in Sacramento? And What Happened August 21st In Oakland, California?
• 05/30/2012 — Updated: Mysterious Booms Heard May 27 and May 28 in Four West Michigan Counties
• 05/10/2012 — Mysterious Horn and Boom Sounds Still Being Heard
• 05/01/2012 — More Unexplained Booms in Boston and Beyond
• 04/26/2012 — Updated: Mysterious, Persistent Booms Throughout North America and England
• 04/22/2012 — Huge Boom Heard in Central California and Northwestern Nevada - Did Meteorite Hit?
• 04/08/2012 — Part 3: Confusion About North American Booms and Man-Made Quakes
• 03/30/2012 — Part 1: Updated 033021 with boom recordings - Mysterious Rattling Booms Expand from Clintonville to Montello, Wisconsin and Beyond.
• 03/30/2012 — Updated with boom audio Part 2: Boom Phenomenon in Several States and Canada
• 03/20/2012 — Two Nights of Mysterious Rattling Booms in Clintonville, WI
• 03/15/2012 — Updated 031512 - High Strangeness Email: Unidentified Aerial Craft, Strange Sounds and Door-Rattling Booms
• 03/01/2012 — Updated 030112: Solar CMEs Hitting Earth's Magnetic Fields - Do They Make Strange, Loud Sounds?
• 02/28/2012 — Strange Sounds in Washington State
• 02/23/2012 — Updated Feb. 23: Eerie, Strange Sounds Heard in Tennessee and Kansas
• 02/04/2012 — Video of Kiev-like Strange Sound in Amarillo, Texas: What Happened?
• 02/02/2012 — Updated: Earthfiles Email About Mysterious “Chorus of Trumpets” and Other Strange Sounds
• 11/13/2011 — Updated: More Loud Booms in Virginia and Missouri; More Quakes in Oklahoma
• 10/27/2011 — More Mysterious Hum Reports from North America to China
• 10/04/2011 — Updated: What Are Strange “Hums” That Keep People Awake?
• 10/03/2011 — Part 1: Viewer Letters About Strange, Loud Booms
• 06/07/2011 — What Are the Mysterious Booms?
• 05/13/2011 — More Viewer Letters About Mysterious Booms
• 05/11/2011 — Updated Reprints: Earthfiles Viewers Reports of Strange, Loud Booms
• 02/08/2011 — More Reports of Strange Booms and Aerial Lights
• 01/29/2011 — Earthfiles Viewers Reports of Strange, Loud Booms
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