A big mystery is surrounding Desert Hot Springs tonight after a series of powerful explosions has rocked the city. They shake windows and some residents describe them as small earthquakes.
The blasts began a couple of months ago and as recently as Monday night, the big booms have been shaking the foothill community.
Comment: They've been regularly heard throughout Southern California, along with many other parts of the US, off and on for some years now.
In a city of 27,000 people, no one knows what they are or where they are coming from. But they sure do hear them and feel them.
"They're like a big explosion. Totally like boom!" said Desert Hot Springs resident Regina Robinson.
Almost every evening big blasts rock several areas of the city. The Desert Hot Springs Police has received call after call. Everyone saying the same thing.
"It's well above a fire cracker and well above an M-80. It does sound like it would be some sort of...an explosive device. Or possibly a military ordinance of some kind," said Desert Hot Springs Police Chief Dale Mondary.
The chief says that even his own officers on patrol have heard them and have tried to track them down without success.
"We have actually checked some of the washes, flood controls where they are reported in, and we're not finding any signs of explosives being set off," said Mondary.
Most of the reports come from the Hacienda Heights neighborhood.
"It's like a sonic boom almost, and then the ground jumps a little bit a couple of seconds later. Like it takes a few seconds for it to get here. And then when it gets here you feel it a little bit," said Desert Hot Springs resident Richard Culp.
Comment: That strongly suggests something non-local, either atmospheric or deep underground. We suspect that most of these booms, particularly in an earthquake-prone areas like SOCAL, are seismic in origin.
Update:
On December 24th, Brian Blueskye of the CV Independent reported that residents of Desert Hot Springs are still hearing these baffling booms: