A strange noise was heard, and the ground reportedly shook, on Sunday night (August 21, 2011) at around 10 p.m. in the area surrounding Bishop Blanchet High School (8200 Wallingford Ave N).
Rich Huston, who lives in the area, says that he heard a boom “like a ball hitting a glove.” It was actually more of a shock wave than a sound, he says, and the walls and floor of his home shook “very noticeably.”
“I had headphones on and was playing guitar,” Rich says, “and I immediately took them off and went outside to see what did that.”
Rich reports that other curious residents of the area were outside as well, some in their pajamas. Nobody, however, was sure what had happened.
He estimates that there were over 40 people standing outside over a four-block radius centered around the 8200 block of Wallingford Ave N.
The cause of the shaking that Rich felt remains a mystery, even after some digging.
Seattle Department of Transportation crews are currently replacing concrete panels on the street, but work on that project didn’t begin until Tuesday.
There is nothing in Sunday night’s police reports or or in 9-1-1 dispatch records which would explain the sound and sensation that Rich described, with the possible exception of a motor vehicle accident that happened just before 9:30 p.m. near Northgate Mall.
“I can tell you this, it wasn’t a car crash,” Rich says. The sound, he said, just didn’t sound a like a crash, although he did hear sirens heading north for the incident near the mall.
Morgan Palmer, Meteorologist at KIRO 7, says that the sound and shaking were not a seismic event. “The National Weather Service heard nothing from that time, the USGS reported no event, and we at KIRO got no word of anything,” he says.
And, Morgan adds, there likely wasn’t a sonic boom. “If it was enough to bring folks outside on Wallingford Ave N, then that scene should have been repeated all over the area if it were sonic boom or some other similar event,” he says.
So what did happen in north Green Lake on Sunday night?
Rich, the resident who described the event as a shock wave, thinks that a a meteoroid may have reached the ground.
“There might have been a very small meteorite impact or such event,” Morgan, the meteorologist, concurs. “But to be felt there and nowhere else it would have had to have been local. And I can’t imagine there being impact from something from above in such a highly populated area without finding or hearing of evidence of such already.”
Morgan says this his best guess is that there was some other kind of event local to the area, such as a large firecracker or perhaps dump truck activity.
Did anyone else feel the ground shaking, or hear the noise that Rich described, on Sunday night at around 10 p.m.? Do you know the cause? Please leave a comment below or drop us a line at tips [at] mygreenlake.com.
Update, 9:20 p.m.
Lianne, who lives near 5th Ave NE & NE 71st St, in east Green Lake, says that she and her husband heard a similar noise on Sunday night, but did not experience the shaking that Rich felt farther north.
Update, 10 p.m.
Vina Rust sent us the following note:
I think it might’ve been a meteor. I was walking east along NW 83rd, between 24th and 22nd Ave NW, on Sunday night around 9 pm (?) and saw a bright flash downwards, like a shooting star, almost directly east from me and quite low in the sky. The timing is a bit earlier than reported – I didn’t have a watch on, but I know it wasn’t too long after sunset, maybe an hour or so, since there was still a tiny bit of light in the sky – but it seems like whatever I saw could have resulted in a shock wave.
Update, 10:50 p.m.
Justin Carder, who publishes CHS Capitol Hill Seattle Blog, dropped us a line about The Perseids, an annual meteor shower that is active from July 23 through August 22. Spacedex has more information about The Perseids here.
Update, Thursday, August 25
The meteorite theory is gaining some traction in the comments below.
And, a new theory has been suggested by Paul Balcerak, journalist at KIRO 7. Paul suggested contacting the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to check if something fell out of a airplane flying over north Seattle on Sunday night. Ice, in particular, would make a lot of sense. “It’s the only thing that could’ve fallen out of the sky, made that much noise and left behind no evidence,” Paul points out.
I have left a message with the FAA, but have yet to hear a reply.
