Well, I see that some booms have been reported in KY but hours west of us.
It’s strange, but we get them here in central KY periodically, have for years. No one really knows for sure, there are various opinions. Ft Knox is some 40 odd miles from here, so we just assume there is something going on at the base. However, I grew up near or on a number of military bases and the only booms we got were the sonic booms from aircraft. Don’t get those anymore. And these booms aren’t really like that anyway.
Not high on my list of mysteries to solve. Interesting to know what they are, but too lazy to try and find out.
No booms here in Tampa to report.
Yes, there have been quite a few recent reports of loud “booms” in the area generally around Paducah, KY. I’ve not been following this closely, and thought it was limited to the last 2-3 months. A little research, though, also shows it going back to Jan. 2013, in nearby S. Illinois, as far north as Mt. Vernon, IL. So, a significant area is involved, even though most (not all) the booms individually seem localized to less than county size areas.
http://www.dailyamericannews.com/article/20130318/NEWS/130319251
An exception was a recent small earthquake in W. KY (Jan. 26), which I experienced / happened to be only a few miles from the epicenter. That one was interesting as I felt no perceptible shaking, but the audible rumble was quite noticeable and lasted I would guess at least 15 seconds. I would not call that a “boom”. Also, in small quakes I’ve experienced in the past, usually the shaking was more noticeable than the the rumble — granted, those were larger quakes with epicenters 20 or more miles away, so maybe that accounts for the difference?
Getting back to the other booms, though, it’d sure be nice to know the cause. In the W. KY / S. IL area, explanations such as frost quakes have been mostly ruled out, so the “mystery” seems to continue.
I’d say it has been occurring now and then for over a month.