Many people were left wondering Wednesday what those strange booms they heard or felt Tuesdsay night actually were.
During the time of the booms Tuesday evening, the temperatures were also quickly dropping below zero, which lead many to believe they were caused by "frostquakes."
Frostquakes are referred to as loud noises caused by the cracking of large sections of frozen ground and ice below the surface as it expands.
In order for that to occur, you need a saturated ground and quickly falling temperatures below zero - both of which we had.
From metro Milwaukee to Beaver Dam - people felt the booms, as was evidenced on our Facebook page.
Around the same time of the booms, some interesting streaks started showing up on weather radar, which the National Weather Service says looks like something related to military exercises.
It turns out, it wasn't mother nature - it was the military. Late Wednesday afternoon the National Guard admitted one of their jets broke the sound barrier over southeast Wisconsin while conducting routine training exercises.
It's important to note that no damage was reported from the booms, maybe just a few people losing some sleep.
Be sure and try our new SNOWCAST APP! It is the "snow equivalent to STORM SHIELD" - a great new product that gives you high resolution snow forecasts for any part of the nation! It has just been introduced for iPhones, but we are working on the Android version! Just search SNOWCAST in the App Store or click here.
