What caused the mysterious ‘boom’ heard across southwestern Illinois? NASA weighs in
People across the metro-east heard — and felt — a mysterious boom on Thursday morning.
They took to social media to confer with neighbors and learned residents as far apart as Red Bud and Edwardsville were describing similar experiences.
Among them were Heather Carter and Jamie Burkett.
Carter said it sounded like something hit a wall inside her Lebanon home. She got up from the kitchen table where she was working on a laptop to investigate and saw everyone else in the house was asleep. It was about 7 a.m.
She said she usually thinks nothing of a loud boom because of her proximity to Scott Air Force Base, where airmen routinely practice explosive ordnance disposal training. But then she saw someone posted in the Collinsville community Facebook group about hearing a boom at the same time as her. Collinsville is 15 to 20 miles from the base.
“I thought, ‘This is very strange,’” Carter said.
Burkett’s New Athens home is equally far from the base. She said she also heard a loud boom around 7 a.m. and even felt her house shake.
So what was it?
The Belleville News-Democrat contacted officials from local, state and federal agencies to investigate the community’s best guesses:
Was it the sound of Scott Air Force Base explosive training or a sonic boom from a military flight?
Karen Petitt, chief of public affairs for the 375th Air Mobility Wing, said there was no activity at Scott Air Force Base on Thursday morning that would have produced the noise.
Petitt also said that Scott Air Force Base was not aware of any other, off-base military activity happening in the region Thursday.
The U.S. Department of Defense referred questions to the North American Aerospace Defense Command, which confirmed to the BND that it had not deployed any aircraft in the region.
A U.S. Air Force spokesperson could not be reached for further comment.
The Federal Aviation Administration said it regulates civilian aircraft and that military planes can create sonic booms. A spokesperson referred the BND to the military.
An Air Force sonic boom fact sheet describes it as a “noise similar to thunder.”
“It is caused by an object moving faster than sound — about 750 miles per hour at sea level,” it states.
Air Force procedures require that, whenever possible, supersonic flights “be over open water, above 10,000 feet and no closer than 15 miles from shore.”
“Supersonic operations over land must be conducted above 30,000 feet or, when below 30,000 feet, in specially designated areas approved by Headquarters United States Air Force, Washington, D.C., and the Federal Aviation Administration,” the fact sheet states.
Was it a meteor or falling debris from space?
NASA said in a statement to the BND that its Meteoroid Environment Office did not detect any unusual activity in the skies over southwestern Illinois early Thursday morning.
The office determined it is unlikely that a meteor or other celestial activity contributed to what people in the region heard and felt, according to NASA.
Was it an earthquake?
U.S. Geological Survey spokesperson Alexandra Hays said there was no earthquake in Illinois on Thursday. According to the agency’s earthquake map, there were also no earthquakes in nearby states.
Was it a frost quake or other weather event?
The St. Louis office of the National Weather Service confirmed what many people in the region already suspected: what they heard was not thunder.
The office added that the sound was also not the result of a frost quake.
“Frost quakes occur when temperatures are mild and then fall below freezing very rapidly, causing underground water to freeze and expand,” the National Weather Service St. Louis office said in a statement to the BND. “That expansion is what causes frost quakes. Our temperatures have been very steadily in the mid-40s for at least the past day, so that couldn’t have been it.”
Was it the sound of a transformer blowing?
Ameren Illinois spokesperson Karly Combest said there were no issues with the Ameren grid at the time the noise was heard Thursday morning.
Was it the sound of mine subsidence?
Illinois Department of Natural Resources spokesperson Brandon Damm said the Edwardsville office of the Abandoned Mine Land Reclamation Division had no reports of mine subsidence as of noon Thursday.
(To make a report, contact the office at 618-650-3197.)
Like many others on Thursday, Carter said she was watching the widespread reports of people hearing the noise and their theories for what caused it pour in on social media. They were from Belleville, Swansea, O’Fallon, Smithton, Freeburg, Caseyville, Columbia, Waterloo and more communities.
She had hoped for an explanation from the military or National Weather Service but said she enjoyed the ride. She especially liked the jokes about aliens.
“It’s just one of those things we’ll probably never know,” Carter said.
This story was originally published December 26, 2024 at 7:13 PM.
