Callers describe atmospheric disturbance (bright light loud sound Va.-Md.-NC)

[underpants]

Source: Richmond Times-Dispatch

The headline in the hardcopy of this paper was
Bright light, loud sound reported in region


Reports of a bright light and in some places, an explosion-like sound, poured into law-enforcement offices across eastern Virginia, Maryland and North Carolina last night.

"The phone is ringing off the hook," said meteorologist Sonia Mark at the National Weather Service's Wakefield station. She said Suffolk police were looking into "reports of great balls of fire landing on the ground."

All of the reports dealt with incidents that occurred about 9:45 p.m.

Several calls came to Richmond International Airport, but tower personnel did not see anything unusual related to aircraft, airport spokesman Troy Bell said.

At the Portsmouth police dispatch center, dispatcher Keith Freas said he felt the building shake and a thunderlike rumble. But he said he saw no lights.

Read more: http://www.timesdispatch.com/rtd/news/local/article/BOOM30_20090329-234409/244022/#comments

---

Callers report flashing lights, loud 'boom'
http://www.wtkr.com/news/dp-now-flashing-lights.m30,0,3505674.story
WTKR is a Norfolk TV station
6:12 AM EDT, March 30, 2009

Meteorolgists are investigating and trying to explain widespread reports on the Eastern Seaboard of flashing lights and a noise that sounded like a loud explosion in the sky last night.

A spokesman for Virginia Beach police said the city's emergency call center received dozens of calls shortly after 9:30 p.m. Sunday reporting "a loud explosion, like a 'boom,' that rattled their windows." He said several of the callers also described a bright flash of light accompanying the sound. The National Weather Service received similar reports along the East Coast along the Eastern Shore and into Maryland around the same time.

There have been no reports of damage, and meteorologists from the National Weather Service office in Wakefield said there was no immediate explanation for the reports.

[Reform]

1. HAARP

..........

[Delphinus]

4. Yes, HAARP can mess with

the atmosphere, but that far away? I would think this would be happening in the area around it in Alaska, not on the far, far east coast.

Interesting to theorize what might have occurred.

[truedelphi]

62. I can't find my link to a little graphic that demonstrates how HAARP

Operates, but that graphic explains that by concentrating the array of antennaes' emissions from the ground to a point in space, that energy can than be deflected or manipulated to any other spot on the globe. Will look for rt later today and if you want PM the graphic to you (It is quite elegant in its simplicity.)

For instance some people speculate that it is possible HAARP triggered the earthquake off Indonesia responsible for the Christmas tsunami several years ago that killed a quarter million people.

Some Tesla proponents also speculate that Tesla was fooling around with one of his own "free energy" inventions and that as a result there was an explosion that took out an entire area of Russia, quite far from where Tesla was located, at the beginning of the Twentieth Century.

Since someone made off with all Tesla's notebooks and burned his office and lab right before or after his death, and since the government and Raytheon will never say much about HAARP other than HAARP exists as a means to conduct experiments, All anyone can do is speculate.

[Psephos]

84. How embarrassing that this old chestnut is still given voice here

Reminds me of the critical thinking abyss often evident in Bible-belt "science."

The actual likely cause:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20090330/sc_space/mysteriouseastcoastboomwasfallingrussianrocket

[bigworld]

2. Um..... thunder?

[underpants]

3. No storm last night at least here in Richmond

the rain finally stopped yesterday and it was a warm sunny windy day

:shrug: just saying

[rainlillie]

6. It's possible it was thunder..

but it was only one big boom and then nothing else. We have had plenty of storms here, but nothing like that.

[Blue_Tires]

13. it was clear all day in Virginia Beac

[rainlillie]

5. I live in New York...

We also heard a loud sound, like an explosion and our power went out for a bout a minute. At first I thought it was thunder and lighting , but then it stopped.

[FedUpWithIt All]

16. I am in NE Ohio and i heard one too. Thought it was thunder but there was only the one

explosion like sound then nothing. Very odd.

[Renew Deal]

45. It was thunder and lightning

We got hit with a powerfull little thunderstorm last night. It dropped some hail from Queens to LI.

[Blandocyte]

7. Geomagnetic disturbance?

I have heard that there is sometimes light resembling "the Northern lights" near fault lines. Apparently the pressure of the two plates generates an electrical charge which is then revealed in the atmosphere when conditions are favorable. That would be in line, no pun intended, with the loud noise as the pressure on the plates was released (tremor), but we'd also expect a record of seismic activity. Some of the reports describe the lights in a way that make me think this is the case.

Of course, they've ruled out lightning/thunder, no?

Our neato-keen world... An interesting place to hang out.

[underpants]

9. That stupid Ben has been moving the wheel again

that is a "Lost" reference

:evilgrin:

on a more serious note my money is on

[Captain Hilts]

8. It was VERY loud and shook the house. The 11 o'clock news had some of the STUPIDEST

reporting I've seen in years.

I'm in Va. Beach right now.

[underpants]

10. I didn't hear it here in Richmond

but a bomb could go off outside of our house and we wouldn't hear it

[westerebus]

11. Not the first time.

Back in January there was one. The sky went from overcast grey to bright green yellow for several seconds after a muffled thunder clap but no lightening. Weird.

I'm south of Richmond.

[fedupinBushcountry]

17. The news was stupid

It was very loud and shook our house, we thought it was some kind of explosion and were waiting to hear the sirens going off, but nothing. So I turned on the news to see if they had anything, yeah, right. We live in the Salem area of Va. Beach.

[virgdem]

78. I live in Timberlake section of VA Bch...

and I was on the phone at approx. 9:45 pm when I heard what sounded like a huge explosion to me. I thought it was coming from NAS Oceana, as we frequently hear loud noises from the jets coming from there. I heard about it at noon on the news and they weren't even sure what the hell it was. Is there any further news, as I've been out all day?

[Supersedeas]

22. is there a place where the local news is NOT a joke?

[freemindsandpeople]

59. weather modification

wasn't this once called sionics? 'weather war' started by us or Russia? i agree, been going on for many years. I remember back in the late 90's the flashing brights lights over Boston and complaints from radio networks about disturbance as far up and Canada....:wtf:

[reggie the dog]

71. sonic boom caused by a meteor?

[jb5150]

12. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm?

Sound of the GOP hitting rock bottom? ....... :nopity:

[nc4bo]

14. Oh damn, we thought it was bomb practice @ Fort Bragg! Yikes.

ETA: didn't see anything as we were inside for the night but definitely heard something.

Come to think of it, I told my son that those were some strange bombs going off.

You'd think with all the environmental monitoring (aiports, radar, etc) going on that something this big would have been noticed and explained.

Strange stuff.

[Hissyspit]

64. That's what I thought, too. I'm right on the edge of the reservation.

And there HAS been a lot of artillery lately. I was watching Cold Case and mentioned to my other family members that there was an awful lot of that going on. Didn't go outside last night.

[reggie the dog]

72. I live by an missle range

we can see the flashes over the hills at night sometimes and hear the booms, sometimes even see a plume of smoke. The gree color others here talk about sometimes reflects in the clouds when they are practicing.

[Christa]

15. I am in NC

and I saw a lot of planes in the air that did not look like commercial planes, last night.

Just saying.

[reggie the dog]

73. UFO?

[October]

18. In PA last night - high winds, pouring rain and thunder

Winds are strong today, but it's clear.

[noel711]

19. Very odd storm in Bucks, PA late afternoon

Huge fog rolled down the mountain, the air turned 'greenish'
(I recognize this as pre-tornado weather conditions from my childhood
in the midwest)....

But then there was long, drawn out rolling thunder that wasn't
the deep sound of most thunder.. but sounded almost mechanical.
This thunder went on a while...

It then hailed.. a long hail. the size of peanut M & M's...
then it poured heavily..

then it lifted, fog rolled off, the sun came thru brightly until sunset.

Unusual weather conditions can inspire strange interpretations.

[willing dwarf]

25. Excellent desription of that storm!

We were all especially excited by the hail. It just seemed like spring weather to me.

[msanthrope]

39. We had hail in Center City, Philadelphia...under a funny, putty--colored

sky.

[Javaman]

41. Maybe it was the Arrowhead Project. ;) nt

[reggie the dog]

74. the hail is what makes the sky green

in the midwest hail and tornado conditions are simillar.

[Roland99]

20. Either a small meteor burned up or NKorea's missile has awesome range

[Wednesdays]

68. Awesome range, but lousy effectiveness. nt

[reggie the dog]

75. I agree

[MrsBrady]

21. makes me wonder

if it was some kind of debris that made it through the upper layers of the atmosphere, but finally vaporized "close" to the surface.
It probably wasn't that close...it just looks like it.
Moon's not close either, but it seems that way.

This happens all the time. Just maybe not in your back yard, so to speak.
It could have been a meteoroid or space junk, or something similar.

It can make an exploding sound, there would be "bright lights" as it was burning up.
It can be large enough to be seen from long distances.
It can rattle the house if the explosion was large enough.

[petronius]

50. Considering that we had an undetected (in advance) near-miss with a pretty

big asteroid a few months ago, it wouldn't surprise me at all if a good-sized rock was able to sneak in and make a loud bang from time to time.

Of course, it's more likely that godzilla briefly escaped the CIA mind-control and kicked up a fuss, but the astronomical explanation can't be 100% ruled out... :)

[MrsBrady]

79. a cia mind control, godzilla experiment was my next choice...

:evilgrin:

[Duval]

23. We heard three "booms" Friday night in NC.

I live in Durham, NC. At first we thought it was a transformer. Then, we heard two more loud booms, but did not see any lights. Someone called the police, who apparently drove around our area seeing nothing out of the ordinary. I was reminded of a plane I heard when I was quite young (late l940s/early 50s) that crashed the sound barrier. How strange.

[alfredo]

49. Our high school football team got penalized 5 yards after being spooked

by a sonic boom. It made the national news.

[FailureToCommunicate]

24. "War of the Worlds" broadcast by Orson Welles (plus lights)

[L0oniX]

26. ...

[bdamomma]

27. weird situation.

[woodsprite]

28. We watched a beautiful storm brew up along the Delaware River last night

We were in New Castle parked at the other end of The Strand about 9pm. DH took some video - flickery skies, pulsing cloud-to-cloud and cloud-to-ground lighting. Impressive fireworks show! Our two kids were with us and said it was like 4th of July.

Probably some of that same system. It did look strange because the storm seemed to be going on above the heavy cloud cover, so you only caught glimpses of the streaks unless there was a break in the lower clouds.

By the time we got home to Newark, there was no evidence of rain, but of alot of wind -- tree limbs down, electric trucks out, leaves/debris all over the place.

[vduhr]

57. You could have been seeing sprites...?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprites_(lightning)

[Wizard777]

29. Opps!

:blush: If you think breaking through the sound barrier is bad. Just wait until you've broken through an interdimensional barrier. Granted it much better to do this in the vacuum of space. Breaking through the interdimensional barrier in earths atmosphere requires a lil plasma and fireball lightening to repair the rift in time and space. Sorry! :blush:

[DKRC]

47. Yeah?

Well, just don't let it happen again.
hmmph

:spank:

[InkAddict]

30. Atmospheric amplification and reflections of light and sound?

from Redoubt?

[ElsewheresDaughter]

31. it was a thunder storm....I live in the catskill mountains the lightening/ thunder shook my house

[nc4bo]

32. It was a beautiful clear, windy, rainfree day here yesterday.

Our previous storms were cleared out and long gone.

What kind of storm could be so huge as to cause lights and sounds to travel from Md. to NC?

[david_vincent]

33. If I'm the first Fortean to weigh in on this,

let me advise you that such phenomena have been reported for decades, in fact centuries, along the Eastern coast. I'm not saying that this particular incident might not have been caused by meteorological events or some kind of debris or meteors entering the atmosphere. All I'm saying is that, historically, phenomena of this nature have been reported periodically from various points up and down the East coast since whenever. In fact, if memory serves, supposedly the native Americans had various names for it. If you go back and look at the record, there have been many reported incidents of this kind going back to, I believe, the 18th Century.

[onehandle]

34. I think it was a UFO.

Bigfoot thinks it was too.

[Baclava]

54. Oh c'mon - everybody knows Squatches come from UFO's

When they get loose, they have to hunt them down.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xM6S1O620QE/SLpBv2J13MI/AAAAAAAAAwA/6DFIDBdhDQU/s400/a+sasquatch+with+aliens.jpg

[underpants]

35. *UPDATE* Norfolk VA TV station report (w/ video) not lightning-eyewitness reports

http://www.wavy.com/dpp/news/local_wavy_loud_boom_over_Hampton_Roads_20090330

[underpants]

36. NYT and Newsday-reports of same thing March 17 Staten Island

Unexplained Boom Is Reported on Staten Island
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/18/nyregion/18boom.html?ref=nyregion

Mystery boom puzzles Staten Island residents
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/newyork/ny-nyboom0318,0,1177456.story

[fedupinBushcountry]

42. Yes, they said

the only thing they can rule out is that it was not caused by weather. I think it was a meteor and once it hit the atmosphere it blew up, To me that is the best explanation and many people here in Va. Beach saw a ball of fire with a tail on it as it was descending.

[NutmegYankee]

37. Sounds like a Meteor exploded in the sky.

I watched one burn up once, and I could hear the crackle of it flaming up and then bang! A flash and it was gone. And that was just the little ones in August, which is why I was out in a field watching anyhow.

[FirstLight]

38. I keep thinking of the Philadelphia Experimant

...it really sounds like something interdimensional... could solar flares or gamma rays cause this as well? something cosmic...?

[Gen. Jack D. Ripper]

44. Probably not solar flares

Most of the charged particles comprising the solar winds are deflected by our magnetic field. I'd say atmospheric or meteoroid.

[MetaTrope]

40. Happens at the beginning of every presidential term

I guess Obama made the Pentagon happy enough that they finally gave him the keys to the scalar weaponry...

[Javaman]

43. I bet it was a fairly large meteor...

sometimes I think the meteorologists keep their mouths shut or have them shut for them via the government.

Face it folks, if there is a massive asteroid aimed at us, do you tell people? Let them freak out over something that can't be prevented?

Just let it happen.

This was probably one that they thought had some potential but not enough to cause destruction.

So why tell us and have everyone go apeshit over nothing?

In a week or so, there will be a report via NASA or some other agency stating something along the lines of, "a meteor of X size, was spotted late Friday afternoon, entered the earths atmosphere and burned up, sending debris raining down on the Atlantic coast. There were no impacts".

And that will be that.

One day we will be hit by a celestial haymaker...

[Renew Deal]

46. I agree

It sounds like some sort of meteor.

[Posteritatis]

61. "The meteorologists" aren't a monolith

Something like that couldn't be suppressed.

Also, meteorologists have nothing to do with meteors.

[Javaman]

65. Ah good point.

Then, what the heck was that thing? :shrug:

[Posteritatis]

81. No clue

The fact that I can say that doesn't necessarily mean that someone else (A) knows, (B) is suppressing the knowledge or (C) can suppress it, though. That's just silly.

[Algorem]

48. progressives' high hopes

[bitchkitty]

63. too true n/t

[shanti]

51. great balls of fire!

hah! somebody's seen them before :)

[MilesColtrane]

52. ...and there's hamburger all over the highway in Mystic, Connecticut.

[dixiegrrrrl]

53. Mysterious booms have been happening for last month, it turns out.

I googled "mysterious boom + flash" on google news.
Reports turn up of stories Mar. 10, 17, 223, and last night.
Hmmm...

edit to add:
Here is a page of e-mails that came to a Va. newsroom, witnesses said they saw a meteor, others said
fireball.
http://www.wavy.com/dpp/news/local_wavy_emails_about_the_mystery_in_the_sky_20090330

[ohio2007]

55. Tungusta (sp)

or a thunderstorm ;)

[Baclava]

56. I blame Aurora

Pulse jets will do that.

[vduhr]

58. Found this video on the internet regarding the boom...

http://www.wjbf.com/jbf/news/state_regional/article/here_comes_the_boom._first_video_evidence_of_mysterious_noise_and_light_in_/12055#fragment-1

[underpants]

60. Good job vduhr!! That sounds like a meteorite

:applause:

thanks

[Festivito]

67. This was Friday 20-Mar not 29-Mar. But, fun, though. Thanks.

Hope you have fun here.

[ecstatic]

66. Paging Kucinich! Was that a UFO?! hmmm nt

[reggie the dog]

69. meteors?

I saw a meteor during a meteor shower here in France that was different. Most were blue green colored lines high up in the sky, but one was bigger, brighter and more of an orange red fire ball, so low that we could hear a crackling sound as it went over sort of like that of a burning marshmallow, and a few seconds later some booms like when planes break the sound barrier. Most meteors just crossed a third or so of the sky but this one went horizon to horizon. Could that be what people saw?

[reggie the dog]

70. some online comments match the meteor I saw

pop and fizzle sound, round in front with a tail and a flame like that found with big fireworks. I am thinking space junk or a meteor.

[RedCloud]

76. Partial eye witness, definite ear witness here.

So about 9:45 I go downstairs to close the blinds after "stealing" more passive solar heating for the night. I turn on the TV to have a source of light downstairs. It was the History Channel which was oddly previewing the next episode of UFO Hunters. Then suddenly the sky had a bright light blue streak so I started to look at the windows. By the time I looked, the light had gone into many fragments of white light. I knew it wasn't an emergency vehicle as there was really no sound yet but yet the lights were everywhere. I heard an odd sound at the back door, sort of like some critter trying to get in. I turned on the bright lights in the back yard and was relieved to see no space aliens any where around. I turned the lights off and that is when the boom came after 20-30 seconds after the initial blue to white lights. It was not something that rattled the doors or windows, more like an explosion. The sky was quite clear but nothing out of the ordinary could be seen.

I did report this, not to the news, but to the UFO Hunters, as I want to get an answer to what are those vapor less trail objects flying near jets with vapor trails. They fly in straight lines and leave no trail or even make a sound. Not a helicopter and apparently if they have wings, they are not very pronounced. Hopefully I will get an answer if they investigate. I don't think the lights and the strange noiseless aircraft (which BTW looks like humans designed it)are connected.

[nc4bo]

77. Russian space junk?? Really?! Series!11

I guess anything's possible but the Russians should have been courteous enough to give us a little heads-up on the incoming.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29958635/

Mystery flash traced to Russian space junk
Expert says reports likely sparked by rocket stage re-entry, not meteor


A mysterious flash of light that was witnessed in the skies over Virginia may have been caused by the re-entry of space junk from last week's launch of a Russian Soyuz rocket, seen here.

By Andrea Thompson
Senior writer
updated 3:23 p.m. ET, Mon., March. 30, 2009

The mysterious boom and flash of light seen over parts of Virginia Sunday night were not caused by a meteor, but rather by exploding space junk from the second stage of a Russian Soyuz rocket falling back to Earth, according to a spokesman for the U.S. Naval Observatory.

"I'm pretty convinced that what these folks saw was the second stage of the Soyuz rocket that launched the crew up to the space station," said Geoff Chester of the Naval Observatory in Washington.

Residents of the areas around Norfolk and Virginia Beach, Va., began calling 911 on Sunday night, reporting that they heard a loud boom and saw a streak of light that lit up the sky, according to news accounts.

:shrug:

[SlicerDicer-]

80. Autobots... Roll out!

[and-justice-for-all]

82. I'm going with space junk...

until it becomes a wide occurance, that's what I am going with.

[Stinky The Clown]

83. I had burritos for supper ......

...... oooops .... s'cuze me.

:blush: