Well, now investigators have loads of data. They have the location (if they know this address): the exact direction and elevation based on the shadows, the exact distance based on the sound delay (about a thousand feet), the size and type of explosive based on the "fingerprints" of the sound and the flash and the specs of the recording devices.

seriously, wtf is this?

Reports are all over the internet similiar to this one here in Salem and many are not here in Mass. Most recently the Coast Gaurd was searching Narragansett Bay due to so many reports in Warwick and Barrington of an explosion. But nothing was found. How very curious that all these different communities are reporting a simliar "loud bang" and lights but no one knows the origin. Can't wait to read more about it, and excited Salem caught it on tape!

If the "investigators" want to know they can have Owen contact me.

The location is near Ocean and Summit Ave

Possibly a Transformer further away? I have heard one explode before and seems plausible.

Have had at least three of these sounds in my neighborhood in Novato, California. First time I thought it was a gun shot, a friend said they thought it was a pipe bomb. Each time it spooked me and my daughter. It was VERY loud. Coincidences??

With that kind of flash and being anywhere from 600 - 1200 feet away it wasn't made by ordinary fireworks.

My boss suggested sewer gas, but sewer gas concentrates in sewers, which connect to the air by manholes, which have covers that blow off when the gas explodes. So if there are no "misplaced" manhole covers, it is less likely to be sewer gas. Mythbusters has a YouTube of all their explosions. Maybe an investigator could match up the video with one of them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rw9xcKkSsag&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Wow!! Aliens or illegal alliens????

They're always in the middle of the night, too. There have been some around the Collins Cove area a while back. You have the big tanks off of Bridge St , many high tension wires, and the power plant. Maybe it is aliens though?!?

Cue Twilight Zone music...

Any ground shaking accompanying this? Like in Wisconsin last year?

You ever see War of the Worlds with Tom Cruise?? Very similar. Just saying.

I've heard the exact same sound/ noise where I live [ Pacific NW]. I've always assumed it was someone shooting off an illegal firework or a loud gun. It happens so fast I just assume there's a plausible reason and don't give them much thought although it's disturbing.

Oh Great! 1st we had to worry about terrorist and now we have to worry about aliens. Geez. I hope it's not the Triffords!!

I say transformer as well.

If it's a transformer than why don't the Electric Company say it is. The police and authorities don't know as well as National Grid. Oh but you know?? I've seen transformers explode personally and this is no transformer.

I heard the sky trumpets about 18 months ago here in NE Okla. It was like nothing I've ever heard before. As it faded away and went silent I just felt very "small".

Maybe it is "The Transformers" invading the earth,I just hope it's not the man eating plants from outer space, the Triffords. They came with a bright light and bang too.

About 11 years ago there was a mysterious explosion in Stamford, CT when I lived there. It shook the house. It was in the papers the next day that everyone who called 911 thought it had happened right near them or in their house. They never found out what caused it, but it was so memorable that 10 years later the local newspaper ran a story about it's "anniversary."

See, I knew it. Next someone will be saying it's sunspots in the middle of the night.

Not sure if anyone else heard another one over night last night, at 12:27am...

The sporting goods stores are selling explosive targets, could very well be those. If it was some natural occurrence it would be happening during the daytimes, too. Not a transformer unless the power goes out somewhere.

I wrote this to Linda once before that this really did happen to me and my printer at a printing facility near downtown Dallas only a couple months after 9/11. We were inside the printing facility at about 9p.m. at night when it sounded like we were in a war zone.
Numerous loud booms right outside facility. Scary enough that I called 911. Police woman showed up and just as I opened the door to speak with her there was another loud boom and flash right behind her in the trees. Therefore, she could NOT deny our report. I had thought it might be transformers blowing up but there were none in the immediate area. No rain going on so it was really bizarre.

War of the Worlds. Watch the movie with Tom Cruise.

I Live in WInchester, Virginia, and these sounds have also been reported.

This is not a common occurrence but it is happening in a larger area than you think. I had a chance to watch an explosion of a transformer and so I know what it looks and sounds like. I have also had this occur in my neighborhood. Last year in Austin Texas in the afternoon a large explosion noise occurred. I and my wife heard it and immediately I went outside to see what had happened. Nothing was visible. I called 911 to report it and asked while I was on the phone if anyone had reported it? I got a negative response. In a bit one other neighbor popped outside and I asked if he heard the explosion. He said he had. Nothing more came of it. The police showed up and did a quick drive through of the area and left.

Aliens. There in the ground waiting to come up and eat us. Watch War of the Worlds.

I've seen this flash 3 times in 2012. Heard the giant booms and scraping sounds. I live in Oklahoma

I saw this once right in front of me one night while out with my dog. Very bright flash and a really loud bang - the street lights went out for a second or two and then everything started flickering back on. I walked over to the area where it happened and laying on the ground was a freshly fried Canada Goose! Poor sucker was coming in to land in a pond beside the power lines and apparently brushed its wings across two lines and shorted them out.

The sound is from sonic booms from an underground fast-track train it's going from state to state. Americans don't know about it because it's the governments Top secret transportation system. The black ops government has a system to laser miles of rock in seconds. Thats's why you're hearing the train they're testing it for how fast it can go. Trust me the local government will never know what that sound is coming from because it's too deep for them to go down and take a look at it.

if you look at the shadows from the flash of light...it looks to me like the flash of light is at ground level. just thought i'd throw that in the pot.

Check out this video on the "Booms and Earthquake" on the east coast, possible answer to your questions at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hM3szYqngq0

space junk or meteorite? Bolide?
http://www.amsmeteors.org/2013/01/fireball-over-ne-usa-january-5th-2013/

similar, from Canada:
http://www.thecoastguard.ca/News/2012-08-13/article-3051435/Updated%3A-Meteor-likely-cause-of-mysterious-booms/1

from 2009, disintegrating space junk entering the atmosphere: http://www.nbcnews.com/id/29958635/ns/technology_and_science-space/t/mystery-flash-traced-russian-space-junk/#.UQwKbb8T4bY

Now, to answer "why have we only started to hear about these things recently? it must be new and terrible!"... how many of you were surfing news sites and youTube 5 or 10 years ago and comparing comments on stuff like this? I love and fear the internet's capacity to incite mania.

Loop up HAARP (High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program.)
that program is might be causing the trumpet sounds heard all over the world last year.
watch youtube video below which explains the mysterious booms which Russia might be responsible for:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XxPXxuRO8Q

I have seen at least 30-40 transformers blow during hurricanes and inclement weather and they emit a blue/green flash.

I live in catoosa ok tonight at 145 I gmheard a boom that shook the entire house but I have never heard this sound before me and my sister and het roommate all heard it and the closest thing I can name it to is a sonic boom anyone else heard this ? If so I'd like to hear from you

March 22, 2013
I heard a boom and that was followede by a very loud boom and the whole house vibrated and shook the windows. Both the dogs heard and reacted.

The #Booms Mystery in Flint, Mi. is a "secret #Tsa bomb range http://pastebin.com/zi5mCgki #TSA / Homeland Security

http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.ssf/2013/03/flints_mystery_booms_explained.html

You're welcome!

Given the events of the last couple of days and the ask from law enforcement, my hope is someone has re raised this information to the proper authories. Long shot but better to be over cautious.

Feel free to repost the video.

At 9:30 am central time in campbell hill, illinois (the town i live in) on this 22nd day of April,2013 i heard a very loud thunderous "boom" followed by a mild but notable shaking of my house that knocked items off of my dresser. I called the local newspaper, which is 12 miles from my house, and they said they felt it but had no clue as to what it was. A friend of mine in another county heard/felt it as well. Very peculiar....

Last night about 2:30 a.m. the same loud boom/explosion sounds happened..It woke us all up in the house..we were terrified!! I was scared to look out the window in fear of gunshots...I know it has happened before...but its so early that I had forgotten..I have never heard it in the day..It is very very strange and I cant believe its happening all over the country! Freaky