Experts break down the "sonic boom" heard all over South Carolina

Added: 2026-05-30

[00:00:00]All right, let's talk about what everyone seems to be talking about right now. We are talking about that big boom heard yesterday across the Midlands.

[00:00:06]Well, the United States Geological Survey says it was a sonic boom, but it's still not clear what exactly caused it in the first place, which is why News 19 we have been working around the clock working to get some answers for you and to also explain how yesterday's sound could have been heard by so many people across is the state of South Carolina.

[00:00:23]It's perplexing. News 19's Megan Docksus tonight talking about more.

[00:00:29]>> It was scary.

[00:00:30]>> Um I jumped up from the couch and said, you know, what what was that? I mean, it sounded that loud and the house kind of shook.

[00:00:37]>> I heard it in in the house kind of shook.

[00:00:40]>> It was loud. It sounded like a crash, but I didn't know it was something that I don't know. People heard it all the way in Camden, too, so that's when I was like, okay, it probably wasn't something that just sounded in Columbia. We thought somebody hit the side of the building.

[00:00:53]>> So, what was that sound? The US Geological Survey says a sonic boom. Dr. Erin Dutel, who works in the department of geology and environmental geoscience at the College of Charleston, says barometers went really high measuring pressure when the sonic boom came through, but earthquake seismometers did not record side-to-side shaking. She says a sonic boom is created when something is traveling through the air extremely fast.

[00:01:16]>> As it does so, just like a boat through water, it is displacing air.

[00:01:21]And when it gets going too fast, the air can't get out of the way fast enough.

[00:01:26]So, pushes get air molecules and they're normally like, "Yay!" And then when that comes through, instead of being able to move out of the way, they slam up together. So, you get the all the air molecules stuck together and this cone kind of shows how they travel away from whatever was squishing them together, in this case, an airplane.

[00:01:45]>> Clemson physics professor, Dr. Amy Pope, explains how fast something has to travel for the boom to be made.

[00:01:50]>> For about 767 miles an hour. So, any object that is traveling faster than 767 mph is going to create a sonic boom whenever it goes supersonic.

[00:02:07]>> So, how does the sound travel and why was it heard everywhere? Dr. B says the higher up the object breaking the sound barrier is, the more people that will hear it.

[00:02:15]>> Warm air, the red, above the cold air.

[00:02:17]And so, what happens is that that wave hits that warm air and bounces back down.

[00:02:25]And so, even though it wasn't supposed to reach the ground, it might still reach the ground.

[00:02:30]And then, it hits the ground and it keeps bouncing.

[00:02:35]So, you can then hear it over a larger area.

[00:02:37]>> So, maybe you didn't hear it and here's why.

[00:02:40]>> You're like, "How can that be?"

[00:02:42]Well, there are buildings in the way.

[00:02:45]There's landscape, there's hills, there's valleys. So, depending on how the sound wave was bouncing in that area, there are people that may not hear it and somebody, you know, less than a quarter mile away is like, "How could you not have heard that?"

[00:03:00]Because, you know, it's it's kind of like a bouncing rubber ball. It can it can miss stuff.

[00:03:06]>> And you might have also felt the boom yourself or shake of your house, but if it wasn't an earthquake, why was there movement? Dr. B explains.

[00:03:14]>> Compressed air moving rapidly. So, of course you will feel it. I mean, just like you would feel like if you caught a blast coming out of an air compressor.

[00:03:22]Right? You'd you'd feel that. Um but because it's so large, you don't feel like as individual like when it blows your hair back.

[00:03:30]You're going to feel it as literally um kind of squeezing your insides, pushing on you.

[00:03:36]>> So, the big question is, what was it?

[00:03:39]Both experts say it could be a meteor or a plane.

[00:03:42]>> Meteor is very likely for that. Um and typically you would see the light with it as well, but in this case with the weather, perhaps not.

[00:03:51]>> Probably it was a combination of atmosphere and the plane, if it was a plane or meteorite, being at the right location at the right time to make it bounce all across the Midlands.

[00:04:02]>> News 19 is reaching out to other nearby military operations and aircraft companies. Reporting in Columbia, Megan Daughtry, News 19, WLTX.

[00:04:11]>> That is so interesting. By the way, the American Meteor Society also tells us they received a video showing a contrail in the sky, but no fireball. And based on the timing of the sound and the contrail, officials say the boom was more likely caused by an aircraft exceeding the speed of sound.

[00:04:29]All right, that's an explanation. Let's go ahead and check in with Shay.