I was in the realm between wake and sleep around 2:30am in the dark morning of January 30 2011 when a thundering boom jolted me to alert consciousness. To say it was thundering is an understatement because the boom shook the house. It reminded me of the sonic boom that the Puget Sound felt on August 17 when Obama visited and a fighter plane broke the sound barrier flying from Portland to Seattle... but that sound was reported throughout the region. My sister had been awake talking to a friend and was by many windows but says she didn't see any flash.
"I think that scared me more than I've ever been in my life," she said, "My heart has never beat so fast."
For the first few seconds after the boom, I wondered if we had been bombed or if a tree had fallen on the house that would break in the roof, but after a moment, I was convinced that it must have been a sonic boom. Having lived in Arizona and witnessed lightning strike down a cactus a hundred feet away, I can say that whatever created the boom was louder than up-close lightning.
The next day when some guests visited from Tacoma they said they had been unaware of any noise. To me this was enough indication that there had been no sonic boom. Apparently someone else on Fox Island reported a flash in a blog that I am no longer able to find. So if it was lightning, why weren't my sister and her friend able to see the flash? It seems that they would have at least seen it out of the corner of their eyes as they sat up talking in dimmed lights by many windows, but she says there was none. Maybe they blinked simultaneously? After some light internet searching I am still unable to find any official news reporting the mysterious boom.
"I think that scared me more than I've ever been in my life," she said, "My heart has never beat so fast."
For the first few seconds after the boom, I wondered if we had been bombed or if a tree had fallen on the house that would break in the roof, but after a moment, I was convinced that it must have been a sonic boom. Having lived in Arizona and witnessed lightning strike down a cactus a hundred feet away, I can say that whatever created the boom was louder than up-close lightning.
The next day when some guests visited from Tacoma they said they had been unaware of any noise. To me this was enough indication that there had been no sonic boom. Apparently someone else on Fox Island reported a flash in a blog that I am no longer able to find. So if it was lightning, why weren't my sister and her friend able to see the flash? It seems that they would have at least seen it out of the corner of their eyes as they sat up talking in dimmed lights by many windows, but she says there was none. Maybe they blinked simultaneously? After some light internet searching I am still unable to find any official news reporting the mysterious boom.
