The "Flashes" and "Booms", Predominantly appear to be Lightning and Thunder.

I have read quite a number of the posts on ATS regarding the flashes and booms being heard as of late. There seems to be a significant separation from the consistent low rumbling sounds being reported and these flashes associated with following booms.

I live in Clearwater, Florida (a.k.a the lightning capitol of the US and Western Hemisphere). Tampa, which is just a stones throw away from Clearwater receives more lightning strikes than any other city in Florida.

12.) Florida is the lightning capital of the Western Hemisphere with up to 120 thunderstorm days per year. Lightning regularly strikes the "LOWEST" object here on the peninsula, with many 1000's of strikes per square mile annually. Only Central Africa (a much larger region) has more lightning strike occurrences.

Florida Weather Facts

Then there is this...

Q: Where is lightning most likely to occur?

A: In the USA, western and central Florida receives the most lightning strikes each year. Specifically, Tampa is the U.S. city that has the most lightning, with more than 100 days with thunderstorms annually. Around the world, parts of central Africa and South America close to the equator have the most lightning, with some spots recording nearly 200 thunderstorm days per year.

(Answered by Doyle Rice, USA TODAY’s weather editor, April 29, 2007)

Answers archive: Lightning science

A common reply is "but it was clear and there were no storms near-by". I would ask, how far away are you looking for storms?

How far can lightning strike?

Almost all lightning will occur within 10 miles of its parent thunderstorm, but it CAN strike much farther than that. Lightning detection equipment has confirmed bolts striking almost 50 miles away, but these are very rare.

Lightning - Frequently Asked Questions

Although the above is rare, it is not out of the realm of possibility.

I can assure you that lightning and thunder can look and sound like something straight from Armageddon. Complete with shaking the whole house, ground, setting off car alarms. At times even ear piercingly loud. If you have never witnessed a storm that can produce lightning and thunder in this capacity you really should schedule a trip to Central Florida this summer. I can assure you that you will get to experience one of these storms that produce the latter.

Just a notion here, but perhaps the reason people in areas not usually prone to such extreme lightning (like Pennsylvania), are now, is because weather patterns/climate patterns are changing and areas not usually subjected to such extreme weather that is typically found in more sub-tropical climates, are now experiencing them due to extraordinary weather patterns due to something changing.

In any event, lightning and thunder are quite a pair and imo an awe inspiring phenomenal event (especially in my region of the US) and I have always found it to be one of the things that makes this Earth so amazing.

Greetings, I'm from Clearwater Also. I just moved here from Michigan recently so I haven't had the chance to witness a good thunderstorm.

However, as some thunderstorms can get pretty bad I don't think I've ever witnessed one that can actually shake a house. The noise may sound like it's loud enough to shake a house but for the most part there's never actually any shaking going on.

Maybe it depends on how close the actual lightning strike is but I just don't see a thunderstorm making people call 911 as a lot of the people from the recent shaking event's have done.

Edit; As for Flashes and Booms, yes that could be caused by a very bad thunderstorm which might not even be close to someones house. The only thing is I just don't see how the people who post the Flashing and Boom threads wouldn't factor in a good thunderstorm.

My comment is related to the Clintonville, WI booms / earthquake / thunder whatever it is.

It could be thunder but it seems like there would be a lot of reports of the lightning or storms. I'm sure what you are caiming is very often the case but I think Clintonville is different.

Thanks for the info.

so yeah then why did Clintoville have USGS add in a 1.5 M quake?

reply to post by UberL33t


I love the informative post on lightning! I'd totally agree with you, sometimes lightning and thunder sound like nothing else in the world. It's especially weird when it's right on top of you. Often you can hear a hissing before a quick snap, and there may not be much in the way of thunder. Other times it just seems to roll on forever. Man, I love thunderstorms...

reply to post by Nakor


I love irony, I lived in Lansing, MI for two years, and I was completely disappointed in the thunderstorms. I remember specifically asking locals, "is this as bad as it gets?" "Pretty, much." was the reply. I thought to myself, "wow, these people have no idea what a real thunderstorm is like".

Be patient my friend, the storms are coming. We typically see them in the morning, the real good one's are more towards Polk County when the East Coast and West Coast seabreezes converge. Now those are some storms!

Originally posted by BiggerPicture
so yeah then why did Clintoville have USGS add in a 1.5 M quake?

Are you asking me that question?

I am the biggest skeptic out there when it comes to Clintonville.

I want to know why it took sooo long for them to begin to recognize Clintonville period.

Whatever is going on there is a sign. It's not normal.

I live on the gulf coast. Frequent thunderstorms and hurricanes here! Our storms can get pretty intense. The thunder is so loud it will set off car alarms, and shake my house. (My house is above ground on blocks, so I don't know how much it would shake if it was on cement foundation.) The best is when you get one that loud in the middle of the night, nearly giving you a heart attack.

I don't know what those people are hearing, but if they aren't used to storms like this and are starting to get them, I can see how they may be confused. However, I'm still keeping an open mind because I wasn't there to hear it for myself.

reply to post by UberL33t


Oh the Irony indeed, I'm from right near the Grand Blanc area. I've heard the storms tend to get pretty bad as the summer goes on. Along with how humid it get's in the summer. I've also heard though that this has been a pretty hot winter and summer for them but the same goes for the people in Michigan. They have reached 70 degrees around january. Weird weather indeed but thanks for posting that info on Lightning.

Where gets the most lightning and the fewest quakes?

You guessed it... sunny FLORIDA

This phenomena is far from new. From the book "The Dragon and the Disc" by Ted Holiday copyright 1973 pg. 124 "On 24 December 1964, Roger Rump, the head postmaster of Warminster, was awakened by a pounding on the roof of his house. He described it as a terrific clatter, as though all the tiles were being smashed. Dozens of other people complained of bangs, droning and explosions during the same period. U.F.O'S were widely reported and were believed to produce the sounds. An unexplained "thundering phenomena" does indeed occur. The first modern observation seems to have been provided by Colonel Godwin Austin who heard inexplicable detonations in the air in the spring of 1865 in Bhutan. A further description was supplied in 1895 by Colonel H.S. Olcott from the Barisal and Chalmari regions of the Brahmaputra. The sounds came to be known as the "Barisal Guns." Charles Sturt, discoverer of the Darling and Murray rivers, heard them in Australia in 1828-9 and commented: "It was not a terrestrial sound although it might have resembled a discharge of heavy artillery." The 'Thunderer' has also been heard in the U.S.A., Ireland, Britain, and many other countries. In Haiti, Kolosimo says it produced "superstitious terror." It is reasonable to suspect that there may be a connection between the "thunderbird" of Amerindian folklore, the thundering god Taranis of the Celts, the Barisal Guns, and U.F.O phenomena."
Please all people hearing these sounds go outside and look UP!!!! This noise is nothing new, but still unexplained and very interesting. Check out my sig link for my experience.....They are coming back, again and again.........

Hello, I'd just like to chime in from here in the UK.

At least twice I have had thunder boom directly overhead.
Once it made the usual ''kerrrAACK'' noise, but the other time it WAS just a huge bang.
I have never experienced anything like it, and in both cases I assure you there was a lot of shaking.
Windows rattled, my bed shook, the pots fell off the draining board, and once, for a split second the power went out too..
The sound was louder than anything I've ever heard before or since, I was in my teens, and it still scared the living daylights out of me. I'm not afraid of storms.. I love them in fact, but that was terrifying, and a little too close for comfort.

There's three points I'd like to raise:

a) If this happens in places like here in the UK where we don't generally get a lot of huge storms, then I'm fairly sure people unfamiliar with lightening, or thunder happening directly overhead, would probably freak out.

b) Sometimes they don't always have the long drawn out rumble at the end. Remember, the rumble at the end is the sound of the thunder travelling. If it strikes almost overhead, you might not necessarily hear the rest as it travels off in all directions at the speed of sound. I don't know about the likelihood of that happening, but I can assure you I've experienced it. Huge bang, with none of the expected after-rumble.
If I hadn't been aware of there being a storm, I would have asked questions too.

c) The people talking about ''sonic booms'' are aware that thunder IS a sonic boom right??
(Just checking... )


Here in the UK a kid got hit by lightening miles away from the actual storm.
I was at the seaside town where it happened, and we saw the bolt hit the beach further down from where we were sitting. Blue skies and sunshine, with a hint of dark clouds on the horizon out at sea. He was okay, but it made everyone here talk for a few weeks about ''freak lightening bolts''

Do you have lightening detector websites in the US?
Surely they are worth looking at when people start hearing these noises?
I use the boltek one that can be found online, it even registers noises...
Just a thought..

reply to post by Deplume

There's three points I'd like to raise:

All three, very good points imo, as well as the rest of the post I might add.

I don't see how this thread has turned into a thread about thunder and lightning when it's clearly something underground causing this. 60 people one time 40 another all calling 911 because of thunder and lightning as if they've never heard it before? Sounds absolutely ridiculous to me. They have no idea what it is as I've heard 3 complete different reasons from the media about this specific incident. They should've just stuck to with an earthquake, that would've shut people up and sent them on their way. It's like when birds were dropping out the sky last year and one day it was fireworks the next day it was power lines the next day it was this and the next day it was that. People just believe whatever their told and it's pretty sad.

Originally posted by Intelligence101
I don't see how this thread has turned into a thread about thunder and lightning when it's clearly something underground causing this. 60 people one time 40 another all calling 911 because of thunder and lightning as if they've never heard it before? Sounds absolutely ridiculous to me. They have no idea what it is as I've heard 3 complete different reasons from the media about this specific incident. They should've just stuck to with an earthquake, that would've shut people up and sent them on their way. It's like when birds were dropping out the sky last year and one day it was fireworks the next day it was power lines the next day it was this and the next day it was that. People just believe whatever their told and it's pretty sad.

I totally agree...

its obvious that these people are being told lies to calm their fears, which lends me to believe that the origin of the noise is known....

Originally posted by BiggerPicture
so yeah then why did Clintoville have USGS add in a 1.5 M quake?

Exactly....

Which lie will they stick with?

Okay, I'd lust like to chime in again.. I've just heard one of the 'booms' someone has recorded.

I said that thunder overhead sometimes 'booms' without tailing off with a rumble, because you're at the 'epicentre' of it, if that makes sense.. but this 'boom' is clearly a way away. It doesn't sound like anything I've ever heard before, except possibly a muffled explosion of some sort.

I still stand by what I said before that's it's VERY possible, SOME people are mistaking thunder for something else... but having heard this particular audio, I'm prepared to stick my head above the parapet and say:
"I'm wrong... That's not any kind of thunder I've heard before''

Now I want answers too...

News for you, I'm in Las Vegas, NV - we get next to no rain, thunder or lightning and we have had the deep booms for the past several weeks. There's a thread on ATS called "deep booms hitting my house" Look it up, many of us are new to ATS because we were searching for others who are experiencing the booms and stumbled across that thread..

reply to post by Deplume


That is fascinating. Incredibly fascinating. I really want to know what that is now... It's definitely not like any thunder I've heard before, and I've heard my fair share...