Strange sound story

As recently people have been hearing strange sounds in various places, I thought I would post my own experience. This happened a few years ago, but I thought I would share this story. In 2006, on Christmas Day around noon, myself, my wife and my sister decided to go shell collecting on Honeymoon Island, an uninhabited barrier island on the west coast of Florida just north of Tampa Bay. It was a cool sunny day, clear skies, a slight breeze but nice weather. We went for a walk on the beach, which is a beautiful sandy beach that stretches for miles. We were heading back to the parking area, when suddenly, we heard three or four very loud booms, which I can only describe as sounding like an explosion in reverse, if you were to record an explosion and run the audio backwards, this is the exact sound we heard. They were very basey sounds. And the impression was that it was something of such magnitude that it was geophysical. It literally felt like the whole atmosphere was vibrating. after the four booms, there was a sort of basey dull roar that faded off. We looked at each other, and then looked down the beach, and the 2-3 other people who were walking in the distance along the several miles stretch were stopped in their tracks and looking up into the sky. I looked up and there was absolutely nothing in the air, no aircraft, no boats in the distance, nothing but us the beach and the wind. It was a very disturbing experience and one that still haunts me.I have to say at this point, I am very familiar with sonic booms, and this is not what we heard at all. When we were on our way out we stopped and told the park ranger that we had heard the sounds, and were concerned that maybe a plane had went down out in the gulf or something. We never got any explanation for what happened, and to this day I still wonder what it was.

reply to post by openminded2011


Sonic booms reflected between the sea and a temperature inversion layer in the atmosphere.

I have heard this a few times, always near the sea and always when jets are going supersonic at low altitude.

The pre-boom indicates that the planes were a distance away, higher frequency components of the boom reaching you shortly before the main boom.

reply to post by chr0naut


I had considered this, Macdill AFB is nearby and there are F-16's routinely in the area. But it was not like any sonic boom I have ever heard.