What caused a flash and loud boom over Stockton?
STOCKTON - A bright flash and then a loud boom filled the sky over Stockton this past weekend. People, officials and even experts are stumped by what might've caused this.
It rattled homes, and several people called the police about it. However, there was no explanation for the bizarre boom.
"All of a sudden, there was this loud whoomph and it sounded like something hit the house," Misha Taylor said.
Taylor was half asleep in her home when she heard the loud boom and thought something bad had happened.
"Did the carport roof fall on our vehicles because it was just so sudden and it startled me awake which you can hear me [scream]," she said.
It wasn't her carport falling. Her boyfriend thought it was a crash at a nearby intersection, but it wasn't that either.
The buzz around social media sparked several rumors from propane tanks exploding to a truck hitting the St. Joseph's Medical Center or even a rouge lightning strike.
Officials confirmed with CBS13 that the boom or explosion sound did not come from a medical center.
Stockton police said they received several calls and their officers checked out every single one, but no explosions or indications of one were found.
So was it lightning? We showed the video to the National Weather Service, which said there were storms to the south and west of Stockton at the time of the boom, but the video confirmed to them that this was nothing weather-related at all.
"So I started sharing it because this is it was. It was not thunder. This was not fireworks. I know what those are like," Taylor said.
She posted the video to give the public a better understanding of what happened.
"Oh, great. I'm the only one that got it. Is the Men in Black going to show up with the little thing, you know?" Taylor said jokingly.
So what does she think the loud boom was?
"I don't know what it was. I know what it wasn't. At least I'm pretty sure what it wasn't. I just want to know what it was," she responded.
We reached out to several atmospheric experts and scientists on Monday from UC Davis to Sacramento State and even the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory but did not get a response by the time this story was published.
