Mystery thuds--halp!

[MorningGlow]

Okay, I realize that the subject line of my post is just fodder for copycats, but I can't think of any other thing to call them. Mr. MG and I both heard massive "THUD" noises in the middle of the night last night, but we can't find anything amiss, in the house or out.

These were really huge noises--just one at a time, about every couple of hours. Between us, we heard four. The third one (around 3:40 a.m.) even woke one of our cats, who scooted down the hall with a look on his face.

Quite frankly, it sounded like someone was lifting the bilco door to the basement and dropping it suddenly. It didn't seem like an earthquake or a sonic boom or anything like that. We're trying to tie it to the weather (severe temp drop overnight, some wind, but the wind had died down by the time we heard the last couple of thuds). Wasn't ice falling--it was too cold--in the single digits. I thought maybe the storm door wasn't latched, but Mr. MG checked it and it was fine.

So...aliens?

Seriously, we can't stop talking about it this morning, trying to figure it out, but we're totally stumped.

[blondeatlast]

1. Dunno--but every morning about 4:50 AM I hear a sound like my shower door

is closing hard.

My husband is in Prague, CZ. R., so it's REALLY weird!

Also, we get house-settling thuds about 3:30 every morning, but the shower door thing is really weird!

[MorningGlow]

5. Ooh, that IS weird!

Our house is really old, so "house settling" crossed my mind, but this is the first time it's happened, and we've lived here for three years.

[no name no slogan]

41. Oh, that was me

BTW, you need to turn up your thermostat on your hot water heater. I ran out of hot water after an hour and half.

This is the DU member formerly known as blondeatlast's secret cyberstalker.

[LeftyFingerPop]

2. What kind of furnace do you have? n/t

[LeftyFingerPop]

3. If you have a natural gas, forced hot air furnace...

See if the noises correspond with the time the furnace comes on.

I had a situation where I had a faulty burner, and did not know it.

The burner would release gas out of sync with the igniter.

As a result, gas would accumulate inside the plenum, and when the igniter did spark...BOOM!!!!...an actual explosion inside my furnace.

Not saying this is what it is, but certainly worth checking out.

Obviously, a very dangerous situation if this is it.

[MorningGlow]

7. We do have a natural gas furnace

I will check that out--thanks! We had the furnace serviced for the season a few months ago, but the service guy was very strange, and I'm not sure I completely trust his work.

If it is the furnace, would it happen all the time? What I mean is, I was home alone during the day yesterday, and so the house was very quiet (no TV, video games, etc.), and when the furnace came on there was no corresponding thud. It only happened at night. If it were noisy during the day, I'd say I just didn't hear the thuds, but that wasn't the case. (And besides, they were quite loud...)

[LeftyFingerPop]

8. Mine would not happen every single time the furnace came on....

I guess it would depend on your specific situation.

In my case, it would take some time for enough gas to build-up before I heard an actual "boom".

I guess in theory, it is possible that your furnace may come on fewer times during the day because of the warmer outside temperature, so, depending on the actual problem, maybe enough gas does not build up during the day time hours.

Of course, this is all speculation at this point, but I had the EXACT same problem as you....with the noise and such.

I tended to ignore it for a bit, until It finally sunk in that "something" is making that noise.

Please hone in on the furnace. check for gas smells, and listen to the furnace as it fires up and shuts down.

If there is ANYTHING that does not seem right, shut off the furnace, turn off the gas, and call for service immediately.

Best of luck!

[MorningGlow]

9. That's good to know

I told Mr. MG, who is skeptical, but paused when I told him how weird the furnace service guy was (he wasn't home at the time).

Something else I was thinking of...we keep the furnace very low at night, so even though it was really REALLY cold last night, it didn't come on very often. Would that have contributed to a buildup of gas, do you think? Also, how long did you let it go before you had it checked? I don't want to wait around for several more nights to see if it happens again...

[LeftyFingerPop]

11. I hesitate to give too much advice here other than to...

"check your furnace".

The reason being...there are several things that can go wrong with them, and your situation may be entirely different than mine.

It was strange in my case...my furnace is in the basement, and there was no gas smell at all because all of the excess gas was actually trapped inside the furnace.

I waited FAR too long, perhaps a week.

Reason: I tend to ignore things, and I am a dumb ass!

It is so hard to tell sometimes where noises are coming from...your noise might not be related to the furnace at all...it might be something outside instead. A little investigative work would be in order if you hear it even one more time.

[MorningGlow]

12. Yeah, I know what you mean--I understand

I'm bugging Mr. MG to call our furnace service, but he's still skeptical, especially because the furnace is new. Ours is in the basement as well, and I doubt we'd smell any gas fumes either, what with all the holes in the old cobblestone foundation. Lots (LOTS) of ventilation. Well, Mr. MG is pretty handy, so he promised to take a peek at it to see if anything's amiss--any computer error messages or what have you--and if all else fails, we're going to have another subzero night with the same conditions as last night, so it may happen again. If it does, I'M calling the furnace service.

[LeftyFingerPop]

13. Good idea...better safe than sorry...

A few other things:

1) Was there any wind last night?

2) Did your neighbors hear it?

3) Walk around your property to see if anything is out of place, especially on the roof.

Let us know how you make out!

[MorningGlow]

14. That's what I'm thinking

What with a kidlet in the house and all.

It was windy last night, but it died down in the early hours, so that didn't account for the 5:30 a.m. thud (and possibly not even the 3:40 a.m. thud).

Haven't talked to the neighbors yet today but will see if our nextdoor neighbors around later.

Mr. MG went out early this morning to bring in more firewood for the woodstove and walked around the house, investigating. He didn't see anything amiss. He checked the back corner of the house that's "under construction" and knocked on some areas, like the dangling gutter, but couldn't recreate the volume of the noise we heard last night.

I'll keep you posted...thanks!

[TK421]

4. Have this guy come check out the place

[Pierre.Suave]

6. Weird

I had that happen to me once, it was so loud and shook the apartment I was in that it woke me up. Still have no idea what it was, however my suspicion is that it was some critter maybe falling out of a tree or something similar happening.

[MorningGlow]

10. Damn, that'd have to be one huge animal!

Reminds me of the time Mr. MG and I were staying at a B&B in Florida. We were on the top floor and woke up in the middle of the night because there was one heck of a ruckus overhead. It turned out to be a pair of raccoons fighting on the roof/in the branches of the trees hanging over the roof. Those guys can make one hell of a noise!

[applegrove]

15. Perhaps snowcakes sliding off your roof. That would make a thud.

[MorningGlow]

17. That was my first thought

Or icicles breaking off and hitting the ground. But it was too cold. Everything was frozen in place last night.

[applegrove]

19. Weirdness!

[MorningGlow]

20. Totally!

[XemaSab]

16. Is the wood in the stove popping?

[MorningGlow]

18. No fire in the woodstove last night

[XemaSab]

43. Maybe it's seeds popping out of their husks

[Frosty1]

21. We get those

When the temp drops the house contracts and makes all kinds of popping thuds. The worst house I had that did that had stucco siding.. I don't know why that would make a difference. My current house is cedar.

[MorningGlow]

22. This was the first time it's happened

And we've lived in this house for three years, through other subzero nights. That's what makes it odd, you know? I do hope it's just that, though! Thanks!

[I Have A Dream]

23. Ghost.

[MorningGlow]

25. If so, that's the most active Beatrice has been in a long time!

Dream!

Of course, she's the one who's been known to open our back upstairs porch door and let the cat out (much to the bewilderment of the cat, who found herself on the wrong side of a locked door on at least two occasions) and has been known to break our wineglasses (the prohibitionist!), so I suppose anything is possible!

[I Have A Dream]

27. Well, it's *her* house too... maybe she has visitors!

You're lucky that she lets you live there!

[MorningGlow]

28. Par-tay!!!

Actually, right on schedule, just before Samhain, MG Jr. declared that there were "thousands" of ghosts having a party in our house. I hadn't told him about the thinning of the veil yet! I reassured him that they'd be gone after Halloween. After Halloween, he announced that they were still there and weren't leaving. I said maybe they liked him, then. I also offered to teach him how to banish the entities, but if we did that, they'd be gone forever. He thought about it and announced that he'd decided they could stay. (I kind of figured he liked having them around.)

If it's this bunch getting boisterous, then we're gonna have to talk!

In all honesty, we ARE lucky she lets us live here. She was the housekeeper for the original owners in the 1800s, so it really is HER house. We were definitely under scrutiny when we moved in! Luckily we passed muster, which couldn't be said for the previous residents, who were systematically destroying the place. Our renovations made her happy (thank goodness!)

[Kali]

24. I've had a kind of opposite problem happen - maybe it might be related, though

sometimes the dogs will freak out for a couple of days about something - we usually attribute it to skunks or other critters or even illegals going by in the wash behind the barn, but sometimes a few days later a huge limb will drop out of one of the big old cottonwood trees around the place. I think they hear the breaking start before it actually falls.

Could a tree popping in the cold have made the sound?

[MorningGlow]

26. That's an interesting thought

I always expect trees to pop when the sap starts rising. Could they also be shifting even in this dormant season, do you think?

[Kali]

31. maybe or if that has been some kind of stress to them in the recent past

like insects or drought (our problem) - just a thought. Water pipes with air in them might even be a possibility. Or maybe the late night vampire neighbors got a new cannon they were trying out?

[MorningGlow]

34. Hm...vampires...

That's a thought! We do have some suspect neighbors to the west of us...

[flvegan]

29. It's 28 days later, and the infected have found you.

[MorningGlow]

30. Oh, well there you go, then

I hadn't thought of that. I feel much better now!

[Ivan Sputnik]

32. You live in a haunted house

...or...someone was lifting the bilco door to the basement and dropping it suddenly? What kind of neighborhood is it?

[MorningGlow]

35. We do have a ghost, actually

But she's been quiet since she got used to our living here. I don't know of anything that's happened lately that would get her irate again...

As for our neighborhood, it's freakin' Mayberry. Nobody locks their doors. Our neighbors leave their keys in the ignition of their pickup, even overnight. Even so, one more noise after the "thud" that might have REMOTELY sounded like a footfall in the house, and I was going to make Mr. MG get up in the middle of the night wielding a baseball bat like a bad reenactment of a '60s sitcom.

[SoxFan]

33. Not aliens

They are sneakier than that, you would probably have missing time, and the cats would have completely lost it.

Yes, I have read way too many books on the subject!

Is there an adolescent or tweener in the house? Could be poltergeist activity.

[MorningGlow]

36. Good point

(I've read way too many books on the subject too!)

We do have a ghost, but she's been pretty calm for quite some time. No adolescent or tweener, but MG Jr., who's 5, is pretty wide open. I've been putting up a shield around his bed every night. Might have to reinforce it...just in case...

[SoxFan]

37. High Strangeness

My parents have had a rash of weirdness at their house, especially over the last few years. Doors closing when no one is in the room, "clunking" noises, and, most unsettling, weird lights floating around. I've never seen any of this, but my folks are both pretty straight-laced and skeptical types and they've experienced this stuff repeatedly.

And it gets even better. Last year they purchased a plot at the local cemetery. Also buried at that graveyard are Betty and Barney Hill, the UFO abductees whose story was turned into a television movie with James Earl Jones and Estelle Parsons.

[MorningGlow]

38. Woah.

That's freaky. Sounds like your parents need a "housecleaning"--if they want that stuff to stop, that is. Two of the three houses we've lived in have had ghosts (and one I lived in as a kid), and it can be a right pain in the patoot sometimes.

[SoxFan]

40. I think they enjoy it, actually

[QueenOfCalifornia]

39. Mystery "Booms"

I have lived through the mystery booms - I started looking into them a few years back when 2 of them happened back to back within about 5 minutes in the middle of the day... No it was not a sonic boom and yet the loud noises were heard all over S. CA. http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20060427-9999-...

Google "Mystery Booms"

Sonic boom source still a mystery http://www.sunjournal.com/story/278979-3/OxfordHills/So...

By M. Dirk Langeveld , Staff Writer
Sunday, August 17, 2008
NORWAY - Officials at military bases around the Northeast said Friday that their jets were not the cause of a large sonic boom-like noise heard in parts of Androscoggin and Oxford counties Thursday morning.

The Oxford County Regional Communications Center in Paris received several calls around 9 a.m. Thursday after the loud noise, but emergency responders were not able to determine a source. A dispatcher at the center said the noise may have been a sonic boom.

Lt. Col. Lloyd Goodrow, public affairs officer with the Vermont Air National Guard, said that while F-16 jets with the 158th Fighter Wing do train over Maine, they did not take off until 8:45 a.m. Thursday and were not flying over Maine that day.

The fighters are based in Burlington, Vt.

Goodrow said F-18 jets from a Virginia naval base have been training out of Burlington and were flying near Kennebunkport on Thursday, but would have been at a high enough altitude that a sonic boom wouldn't have been audible.

Goodrow said that while pilots sometimes do sonic runs, they are done at altitude or over the ocean.

"No military aviator intends to break the sound barrier over populated areas," he said.

Goodrow said fighters sometimes inadvertently break the sound barrier during exercises, and that atmospheric conditions can allow for the sonic boom to carry for a long distance.

Evan Lagasse, public affairs specialist for the Otis Air National Guard Base in Massachusetts, said the 102nd Fighter Wing was transferred to the 102nd Intelligence Wing earlier this year. The base's F-15 aircraft were dispersed to other locations.

Capt. Mary Harrington, public affairs officer for the 104th Fighter Wing based in Westfield, Mass., said a flight of three jets was exercising Thursday off Atlantic City, N.J., but no planes from the base were over Maine.

David McKivergan, a SAD 43 board member from Rumford, said he saw three jets fly over his residence between 8:45 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. Thursday. He said the jets remained in the air for 45 minutes, but he did not hear a sonic boom.

McKivergan said such flights have been occurring, though not on a regular basis, for the past two to three years.

John James, public affairs officer for the Brunswick Naval Air Station, said northern Maine and New Hampshire are partially covered by two low-level flying zones that have been approved by the Federal Aviation Administration for military flights.

James said the speed of sound is 761 miles per hour at sea level in standard temperature and pressure, and can be affected by temperature, pressure and humidity.

A sonic boom occurs when conical pressure waves off the front and rear of an aircraft are supercompressed, causing a sudden rise in pressure and a shock wave which causes the booming noise.

James said the sound doesn't necessarily dissipate with altitude, as it can be heard from aircraft traveling at 70,000 feet. James said no supersonic aircraft are based at Brunswick.

[MorningGlow]

42. Oh damn

I've never heard of mystery booms...now I've got a lot of reading to do! That kind of stuff is right up my alley.