Residents of Kansas City, Missouri are looking in to loud booms that have mysteriously appeared with the cold weather that has swept across the United States.

Many are being startled with the large booms, as they are causing people to think their homes are being broken into or gun shots are being fired.

Temperatures in Kansas City reached well below freezing almost every day in January, and with the cold weather came the booms.

Frost quakes are caused when rain and ice seep down into the soil and freeze when the temperature drops. The deep freeze causes the ground to crack, creating a large boom

Some people believed the noises were sounds from test runs at a nearby Air Force Base, according to KSHB. But when that proved to be false, frost quakes seemed to be the city's answer.

Frost quakes, or cryoseism, are more commonly found on a glacier in the polar regions, but with freezing temperatures reaching further south this year, they've been experienced across Canada and the United States.

As weather got colder, people were being startled with large booms - causing them to think their homes were being broken into or gunshots were being fired - when in reality they were hearing frost quakes (file photo)

The phenomenon is caused when rain and ice seep down into the soil and freeze when the temperature drops.

Most frost quakes occur when there is a large amount of moisture on the ground.

Accuweather explains a frost quake as 'a natural phenomenon caused from a sudden deep freezing of the ground'. This deep freeze causes the ground to crack, creating the large boom.

Unlike earthquakes, frost quakes aren't created out of seismic activity, according toAOL. They are most common between midnight and dawn, which is the coldest part of the night.