String of mysterious ‘booming noises’ reported across several U.S. states

December 10, 2012 – ARIZONA – Jean Swesey was doing homework with her son in Cottonwood when it happened. “It was a whole series of booms,” 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.” Swesey wasn’t alone. Residents in communities in and around Verde Valley and as far as Flagstaff called 911 or their police and fire departments to report the strange booming sounds. “It sounded like thunder, but underground,” Swesey said. “Like muffled thunder. And all the dogs in the neighborhood, all of them that were outside all started barking at once.” CBS 5 News first received reports of the explosion-like noises shortly after 5 p.m. Tuesday and began checking with law enforcement and government sources. The U.S. Geological Survey reports no significant earthquake activity in Arizona that could have created the booms. The Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office had deputies in the area that either heard it or tried to respond to resident calls. They found nothing. The Sedona Fire District dispatched a crew to check a report of a strange odor, but that was unfounded and may not be related to the sounds. The Camp Verde Marshal also received a number of phone calls about the booms. Officers found no evidence of any explosions. But the Verde Valley contains large expanses of uninhabited land. “Maybe when the light comes back they’ll find something,” said Gary Johnson of Sedona Fire. Swesey sure hopes so. “It was just, ‘boom-boom-boom-boom-boom all over the Verde Valley.” The cause of the mystery noise still remains a mystery. –KPHO

December 3, Rhode Island shaken: Did you hear it? On Monday night at approximately 11:20 p.m., reports of a loud boom flooded police stations and social media sites alike. Sources from the Warwick Police Department said they received nearly 100 phone calls reporting a loud noise that some thought was an explosion. Some residents called to say it shook their homes. On the other side of Narragansett Bay in Barrington, residents also reported the noise, and a few said a flash of light accompanied it. The calls prompted an initial police and fire search of the areas, and then marine crews took to the waters between Conimicut and Bullocks Point to search for the source of the sound. Senior Chief Jamey Kinney, from the southeast sector of the Unite States Coast Guard, said one of their boats from Castle Hill joined four other local boats to comb Narragansett. Initially, the Coast Guard made calls to T.F. Green to see if they had any missing planes, but the FAA confirmed all was status quo. They also reached out to National Grid to see if any transformers had exploded, but they, too, confirmed all was well. The Coast Guard then tossed around the idea that the noise could have been a vessel in distress, but Kinney said their foray into the waters was more as a precautionary measure. “It’s better to respond earlier,” said Kinney. But there was no vessel, and after combing the waters for an hour and 50 minutes the Coast Guard returned their team to shore empty-handed. To add to the mystery, residents further reported a low, droning, humming noise coming from the water that began about an hour or so after the initial boom was heard, about the same time crews took to the water to comb for a source.. But Kinney said the source of the hum is just as mysterious as whatever caused the initial boom. However, the Coast Guard did determine that the strange flashing light reported in Barrington came from a lighthouse. Locally, reports of the boom came from local neighborhoods like Buttonwoods, Hoxsie, Conimicut, Lakewood, Edgewood, Warwick Neck, Gaspee and Governor Francis Farms. Other media outlets have reported that the noise was heard as far away as Somerset, Mass. Yet, there were still some residents of those communities that missed the boom altogether. Though Kinney said, “strange stuff happens all the time,” he has never heard of mysterious boom like this in this area. Still, according to some reports, this isn’t the first time Rhode Island has dealt with such a mystery. Another loud noise reverberated through the Narragansett Bay area in August 1998 around 9:30 p.m. Yet again, officials could not find the source. Rhode Island isn’t the only place that’s been mystified by such inexplicable noises, since they’re fairly common throughout other areas of the country. In March, residents of Clintonville, a town in Wisconsin, reported a series of mysteries booms night after night. Residents said they were consistently being awoken from their sleep by the sounds. Still, officials had a tricky time pinpointing the source. Finally, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) recorded a 1.5 magnitude earthquake and said the noises were consistent with the ground’s trembling. ABC, who was among several national news stations to document Clintonville’s strange plight, concluded that the mystery was solved by the USGS diagnosis. The USGS website did not indicate any seismic activity in New England at the time of Monday night’s boom, though there was a small earthquake in Maine on Tuesday morning, well after reports of the noise. –Warwick online