PORT ANGELES — It was the boom heard ’round the Peninsula, whatever it was.
And folks are still talking about it, or them, almost a week later.
Officials don’t know what caused a series of loud booms last Thursday night, but the unexplained sounds have piqued the curiosity of people from eastern Clallam County, to Grays Harbor County and down to Arizona.
About 11:30 p.m., residents reported the noises rattling their windows and nerves. The noises were described as a series of about five booms.
Dispatchers for PenCom, the 9-1-1 service in Clallam County, received three calls, but there has been no definitive word on what caused the booms.
Coast Guard Group/Air Station Port Angeles and Naval Air Station Whidbey Island officials say their aircraft didn’t cause the sounds.
The Federal Aviation Administration has no record of sonic booms.
The earthquake tracking service at the University of Washington reported no seismic activity.
The National Weather Service reported no unusual weather.
Maneuvers in Canada
However, Canadian and U.S. military aircraft and ships conducted maneuvers off the west coast of Vancouver Island that ended Thursday — the same day the booms were reported — according to a statement on the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Web site.
Some of the military aircraft operated out of Canadian Forces Base Comox, about 160 miles north of the Olympic Peninsula.
PDN readers as far away as Arizona wrote in, offering possible clues and theories.
Bridget Conroy of Phoenix wrote to suggest the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program in Alaska might have had something to do with it.
Reader David King forwarded a story from a San Diego newspaper that detailed a mysterious boom there on April 4.
Another reader forwarded an Internet link to a site asserting that the boom phenomena is a result of global warming.
Boom 12 hours earlier
A man who lives near Ocean Shores said he and his neighbors heard a single boom about 12 hours prior the Port Angeles booms.
Wayne Skinner of Iron Springs said last Thursday a single boom was heard from Moclips to Ocean Shores at about 11:30 a.m..
“It was a big item of discussion,” Skinner told the PDN on Tuesday.
“They all thought it sounded like dynamite outside their doors.”
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Reporter Andrew Binion continues to receive reader comments and theories on the cause of last Thursday night’s booms. What did you hear, and where were you?
E-mail him at andrew.binion@peninsuladailynews.com.
