I heard (not felt) loud thunder like noises here in Southwestern IL about the same time this 5.9 quake hit on the east coast. Not sure if it is related or not. But there is/was not a cloud in the sky here.
The thunder noises were loud enough for me to check the local radar. I have heard thunder like noises here before with other minor quakes in the surrounding states, but nothing as far as VA.
From experience here in Southern California, I can tell you that it’s not uncommon at all to hear a rumble as the earthquake wave closes in on you. It could quite easily be thought of as sounding something like thunder.
If you are standing outside, you can see the wave coming towards you, if you can look down a highway or another flat surface. You can also see telephone polls affected by the quake as it moves in your direction.
I was on the phone with someone about 50 miles away once, when a quake rolled by them. It took a fair amount of time to get to where I was, say fifteen to thirty seconds, perhaps a bit more seconds. I don’t remember the exact time it took any longer.
This is really weird. I’m on the outskirts of Dallas (east side) and at almost this same exact time we had something like a mini-twister move through. Clear sky and extremely hot, rattled the doors and windows for maybe 10-15 seconds. Blew violently one direction and then reversed and blew the opposite direction.
Okay that’s weird because here in northern IL I awoke this afternoon to some really strange thunder rumblings. Now, I looked out and there WAS rain but the thunder was just very abnormal sounding. Then this evening on my way to work, it was sunny and clear. I was sitting in my car eating my burger and all of a sudden I heard a rumble and a gust of wind shook the car and a large piece of paper in the parking lot started whirling around like crazy and then it stopped.