A LOUD noise was heard in New England on Saturday with some experts speculating it was a phenomenon called a frost quake.
Numerous residents reported hearing the noise in southeast New Hampshire and northeast Massachusetts on Saturday night.
Random booms aren’t completely out of the ordinary in New England.
The region has a seismic network that picks up on even small earthquakes when they rattle area communities.
But no quakes were picked up over the weekend, which left residents and weather experts wondering about the cause of the latest boom.
Meteorologist Matt Noyes with Boston NBC affiliate WBTS-TV reported that the cause of the explosion-like noise heard in Massachusetts and New Hampshire was likely a frost quake.
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Though they feel similar, frost quakes are different from earthquakes.
The setup for a frost quake happens when soil is saturated from steady precipitation, such as snowmelt, and the air rapidly cools as colder air surges in, Noyes said.
The ground, which is typically already slightly above freezing, quickly cools to below freezing.
That causes the water in the top inches of the ground to quickly freeze.
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Noyes compared the natural occurrence to filling an ice cube tray.
Filling the tray all the way will cause the ice to protrude and expand outside the tray as it forms.
The expansion of water as it freezes in the ground causes the frost quakes as the ice settles in the cracks of rocks, or in between rocks, ultimately splitting the ground and projecting out a boom noise.
Frost quakes rarely cause any damage since they are shallow and lack the power of earthquakes.
COUPLE'S ACCOUNT OF 'FROST QUAKES'
In February, a couple in Kansas said they witnessed the weather phenomenon of frost quakes, also known as cryoseisms.
NBC affiliate KSNT-TV spoke with Concordia resident Melody Gillan, who said she kept hearing pops that sounded like firecrackers going off underground.
Her husband, a longtime Concordia resident who had never heard of frost quakes, thought someone was shooting a gun in the distance.
“A few days later I was outside and he finally decided I wasn’t crazy," Gillan told KSNT.
"There was something popping in the yard under the ground."
In line with concerning weather, Texas residents have been warned over gorilla hail the size of baseballs that could hit the state.
Experts said the biggest threat from the severe weather system will be large hail and damaging winds of more than 60mph.
Gorilla hail can damage car windows and roofs of homes.
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“Strong directional wind shear, cold pool of air aloft, and expected storm mode of super-cells favors large hail of two inches in diameter and larger," Meteorologist Reed Timmer told The Sun.
"Even a brief tornado is possible.”
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