"Sonic Booms" and a Red Fireball in NE Florida

Hey everybody,

Last night, I was hearing booms, and went outside to see what might be causing them. Although there were no clouds, I scanned the sky that I could see (trees block a large portion of my view) for far off lightning or firework flashes.

I didn’t see any, but then, the entire Western sky lit up red. I then saw what I think was space debris streaking across the sky. It was red, and formed a trail, with pieces falling off. The pieces looked as big as the original. It lasted for only a couple of seconds, and the trail could be seen for a few more seconds.

I kept hearing, what I think were, sonic booms. They continued off and on until I went to bed (3 hours later). I would hear (and feel) three or four spaced out over 10 seconds. Some were louder than others.

It was very cold last night, and I have been told that offshore aircraft carrier flights can sometimes be heard on still winter nights. I am about 30 miles from the Atlantic coast, so maybe that was what I heard.

I looked around for local reports of the booms or the fireball, but didn’t find any.

Did anyone else see or hear this? I’m going to listen for them again tonight, as it is supposed to get cold again. I'll also take my camera out for a little while.

I was wondering if it might be some of the spy satellite junk falling back to earth. I've never seen a red fireball with a trail and dripping like that.

I’ll report back if anyone is interested in hearing more.

I forgot to mention that there were several military type aircraft flying around last night too. A large helicopter flew over my house, and shook the pictures on my wall.

I live near several military training facilities, so it is normal to see some traffic, but there were a lot last night. FYI

reply to post by NoPhobos


Could you be a little more specific concerning your location. This will allow others to do a little digging for you.

Becker

yea was probably either the US satellite comin down, or a local chinese family was having a wedding and setting off party fireworks & such

My location is near Jacksonville, FL.

The booms were deep base, and sounded far away. If it was fireworks, they would have been huge shells, and I suspect I would have seen flashes on the horizon.

[edit on 2/28/08 by NoPhobos]

For what it's worth, I live in Tucson, Arizona and at around 4 or so in the afternoon, I heard a single loud boom. I didn't really give it much thought, other than to step out the front door for a minute and look around. I saw nothing, but I couldn't tell you if I heard any aircraft - I wasn't thinking about it and didn't notice any. It certainly could've been a sonic boom.

reply to post by NoPhobos

Many cities shoot off fireworks to celebrate Independence Day and maybe New Year's Day, but few shoot them off as frequently throughout the year as Jacksonville. Whether to celebrate the two aforementioned holidays, every weekend of the holiday season, following Jaguars football games, following Suns baseball games or signifying a major festival or event, fireworks are almost a part of the local nightlife culture

Found this here: www.virtualtourist.com...

The loud bangs are the puzzling part of your story. How many? How much time passed between them?

Becker

The booms were back last night, and they were even louder. They were usually 4 or so in a row over about 2-3 seconds. Then there would be a pause from 10 seconds to several minutes. It went on from 7:00 pm to 8:30pm. There were hundreds of individual booms.

I didn’t see any more meteors or fireballs, but I didn’t stay out long.