Big Boom Shakes Shoreline

Madison 911 Communications Center numerous calls from people reporting what sounded like an explosion shortly after 10 p.m. Friday, according to a post on Facebook, " ... along shoreline neighborhoods and as far north as County Road and Guilford Lakes. Also getting reports of the same thing as far west as West Haven and Milford. Anybody know what happened???"

The post on the Madison 911 Communications Center Facebook page quickly received responses from people as far inland as Haddam. 

Suzanne Novak, from Madison, reported that it shook her house in Legend Hill. 

People living on the shoreline in Clinton reported hearing it as well. 

Did you hear it? What did it sound like to you?

While it may have been thunder, many people reported that it was just one boom, and that it shook the ground, making it sound like an explosion.

And, with the entire country riveted by the tragedy earlier this week in Boston, and the drama that unfolded today as one bombing suspect was killed and another captured, explosions were on everyone's minds, perhaps making them more apt to report something out of the ordinary to 911. 

The National Weather Service did say that conditions were ripe for a thunderstorm Friday night. 

Here is the overnight forecast: 

Showers and thunderstorms, mainly after midnight. Some of the storms could produce gusty winds and heavy rain. Areas of dense fog before 3am. Low around 50. Southwest wind 13 to 18 mph, with gusts as high as 34 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.

Jay, on the Madison Patch Facebook page, wondered if it was a bolide, or a meteor that explodes when it hits the atmosphere. The American Meteor Society website did not log any reports of that overnight, but we have an inquiry in to them to see if this might be a plausible explanation for the sound. 
Several calls came into dispatch centers other than Madison, including Connecticut State Troopers at Troop F in Westbrook, and other shoreline towns, according to the responses on the Madison 911 inquiry. 

Around 11 p.m., Madison 911 followed up with this information: 

"Just to reiterate: We've investigated and checked in with several other agencies (including on Long Island)... many other towns getting similar reports of a single loud "boom", no reports of light flashes or power outages in the area. Our best guess is that this was a huge thunder clap. Mother nature playing tricks on us while we're already on edge."