Over on the social media side we have been busy tonight dealing with reports of tremors, booms, and shakes across Alabama.

To me it seems like many of the “Bama Booms” tonight have been consistent with sonic booms, from military jets that exceed the speed of sound.

But, this afternoon around 4:30… there are no real answers. I had reports of the ground shaking, very loud, explosive type booms, ratting dishes, and shaking windows from about 10 counties across Central Alabama, with the most intense reports from parts of Chilton, Bibb, southern Shelby, and Coosa counties.

USGS reports no earthquakes. But, Steve Jones of alabamaquake.com sends this

He writes…

“Actually, I see two *sets* of impulses in the filtered / magnified seismogram…there looks to be 7 or 8 discrete pulses in each group, starting at approximately 4:29:35 pm CST and then again at about 4:29:55 pm CST, with each group lasting several seconds.

Does this fit with the “ground truth” reports of repeated rumblings that you have been getting from this afternoon? (Yes, it does)

The impulses look “non-seismic” and have the appearance of some sort of man-made explosions. Beyond that, I just don’t know…”

So… still more questions than answers.

And, on top of the Bama Booms… we had a major solar flare tonight. This is NOT the cause of our booms, but it is very impressive…

This is a major X-5 class solar flare… one of the largest since July 2000. It may have also launched a CME or Coronal Mass Ejection towards the Earth. This is already having impacts on radio, GPS and other communications. It may also bring the northern lights or aurora borealis down to the southern U.S. in coming nights. Just maybe North Alabama. It will very interesting to see how this plays out.

Thank goodness the weather is quiet!

Category: Hodgepodge