Weird sounds last night

[Epyon9283]

This is really freakin weird. Anyway, last night, I and a couple of my friends were in my friend's backyard for a BBQ. Then out of the corner of my eye, I see what almost looks like lightning off in the distance. It lit up the sky a bit. We all just thought it was lightning but then, the flashes started getting more frequent. Too frequent to be lightning. It was just constant flashing for like 20 seconds. Then it stopped completely. We all thought that was weird. Then like 10 minutes later, we start hearing what sounded like thunder off in the opposite direction from where the flashes came from. Then it started getting more frequent until it was almost constant booming. There were a couple flashes from that direction too. The booming went on for a good 5-10 minutes. It wasnt very loud but it was loud enough for my friend's father to come to the window and say "what the h**l is that??" Later, when I got home, I found out that my sister also heard the thunder like sounds. None of us have any idea what it could be. The weather was beautiful so I dont think it was thunder or lightning. Also, we thought that the sounds could have been fireworks from somewhere but it lasted a bit too long for that and no where around us would have had fireworks. Does anyone have any idea what it could have been?

[vass0922]

errr.... military bases around you?
lord knows what they can do

[DaveLewis]

Sounds like the Air Force or Navy was playing (or chasing somebody for real). The thunder like noise was probably a sonic boom and I'll bet that the flashes were flares. If a bad guy has shot a missle at you the standard tactic is to fire off a couple of flares to confuse the heat seeking warhead and then get the h*ll out of Dodge. There was probably some sort of exercise taking place off the coast.

Back when I was a kid they called it the sound of freedom.

[Epyon9283]

So does a plane going super sonic create a series of sonic booms?

[Thud]

The only two bases I can think of in NJ are McGuire AFB and Ft Dix.

McGuire is only an airlift base, AFAIK. I don't know what all Ft Dix has, but what you described sounds like artillery practice to me. You'd see the flashes of light pretty soon after they occurred (when the big guns were fired), but if they're shooting at a good distance away from your location, it would take much longer for you to be able to hear the rounds impact.

Having been around the artillery some, that's my best guess. They'd have to be lobbing those rounds a helluva long way for there to be a 10 minunte delay from when you saw the flashes to when you heard them impact.

My best advice is to keep your eye on the local news.

[Epyon9283]

Well McGuire and Ft Dix are both in south jersey. Probably about an hours drive from here. I have never heard or seen anything like it before.

[nomaxim]

I was going to say Artillery. , maybe Anti-aircraft. Flak??

Fighters would need after-burners to hit Mach 1, and take my word you would more then likly see that.

Maybe one heck of an arc-wielder?

[Germ]

little green men

[Skywalker[TSG]]

Bombers heading for Iraq ?

[kenyg]

fireworks

i think it was Irish day or somethin