Could I have heard a sonic boom last night?

Question

I live in New York State on the Vermont border. At about 1:00 AM, I was awakened by what sounded like a loud explosion. At first, I thought it was a dream, but my son came in because it woke him up, too. We looked outside, and there was no sign of anything. I live in a valley, and we can see all the houses around us. It was a clear night, so it wasn't thunder, and was much too loud for that anyway. There were no sirens or anything, so I guess it wasn't an explosion.

Could it have been a sonic boom? I thought that stuff wasn't allowed to take place over land, but who knows these days? I watched videos of sonic booms this morning, and they sound just like what I heard. Is this possible?

Answer 1

Yes very possible , especially at night.I've heard sonic booms a lot of times because I have to go to any airshow I hear about :) , I wouldn't say its an explosion , more like a gun shot followed by a very loud crackle.

Answer 2

Yeh you possibly did. I've always wanted to witness a sonic boom, lucky you :P

Answer 3

Yes that's probably what it was. Military no doubt. I used to live in VT (Lucky you still live their) One weekend I was hiking/camping in the white mountains ans sitting on top of ridge. It was a warm sunny day and I was enjoying immensely the quiet solitude when all of a sudden a couple of fighters fly over about 100 feet above the tree line. Scared the Sh** out of me since you couldn't hear them or see them until they were right over my head.

There is an air force military base in upstate NY that they were probably flying out of. Yes they aren't supposed to go super sonic above land (below a certain altitude) but they still sometimes do.

Answer 4

This is possible yes

Answer 5

Okay... this is totally weird.  On Tuesday night, April 15, at about 10:30 at night, we heard a huge boom where I live... IN INDIANA.  Then, last night, April 16, people in the next town over (about 40 minutes from here,) KOKOMO, again at about 10:30 at night, heard a big explosion, saw fireballs, planes and strafing.  The police, fire department, AND MILITARY TRUCKS went to invenstigate and said they found nothing.  Some people called 911 thinking it was a plane crash, but, according to FAA, no planes were missing.  BUT lights went out in the area they searched; wouldn't there have to be something to knock out the lights?

ANYWAY, we are being told it was a meteor shower...  The resident astronomer says the Lyrid meteor shower is from April 16-April 22.  Here is a link with pics of what happened here:  http://www.wwki.com/Article.asp?id=66188...

EDIT:  There is an Air Force base about 20 miles east of us, and about 10-20 miles north of Kokomo.  It's not in full use anymore, but the Guard does exercises there and we do see planes from there on occasion.