Rattling in Virginia Beach

I always enjoy mornings at work when there is a bit of a mystery solve.  Today's mystery:  what was the booming noise that was heard at 7:30pm Tuesday, May 10th, from Suffolk to the Eastern Shore, a distance of more than 50 miles?  Some people said they felt it...a few said it sounded as if something thumped against the front door.

The usual suspects were contacted:  the Navy, the Air Force, NASA's Wallops Island Research Center, and the U.S. Geological Survey.  Scientists said it was not seismic or weather related.  The military and NASA said it wasn't them; a spokeswoman for Ocean Naval Air Station said a sonic boom from a Navy jet wouldn't have been heard all the way in Suffolk.  

However, a search of the Virginian-Pilot's archives finds a similar incident from 1997, when booming noises were heard from Newport News to Suffolk.  The Navy reported then that the sounds were sonic booms from  two F-18's that were flying off Cape Charles.  Here's the teaser text from the article.

Archive searching finds more incidents.  A rumbling was reported in Hampton Roads in 1999.  Earthquakes and sonic booms were ruled out.  Here's the teaser text.

In 2002, several neighbors of Oceana Naval Air Station reported cracked windows and damaged ceiling tiles during the annual Oceana Air Show.  The Navy said it was caused by a confluence of jet noise and a special effects explosion.

But sometimes the cause of the mysterious noise is obvious.  It was just over two years ago that thousands watched a meteor steak across the night sky, passing right over the Virginia Beach Oceanfront and generating several sonic booms.  Here's that article from the March 31st, 2009 edition of the Virginian-Pilot