Oconee, SC boom
© Facebook
Social media started buzzing Monday night about a mysterious boom that was reportedly heard and felt by people in communities across Oconee County.

The National Weather Service confirmed it wasn't weather related and the U.S. Geological Survey reported no earthquake activity. FOX Carolina also reached out to the Oconee County Sheriff's Office and Emergency Management but those agencies hadn't received any reports. But the online discussion about what people experienced was still a heated topic on Tuesday.

Teresa Sills tells FOX Carolina, "Last night I was getting ready to go to bed. My husband had already gone to bed and all of a sudden there was a boom sound and the house actually shook and rattled."

After a check around her property, Sills posted a message to an Oconee County Facebook group.

"I asked if anybody else heard or felt what we had felt," says Sills, "Within a few minutes there were 35 people responding and it was all over. One gentleman from Central, one from Long Creek, people from Mountain Rest, Walhalla, Westminster, Salem, Tamassee area..."

Theories on social media included everything from explosions to earthquakes, and while nobody knows the cause of the boom, FOX Carolina Meteorologist Ben Dorenbach says the atmospheric conditions did make it easier for sound to travel and be heard.

Dorenbach says, "When you have an inversion or the warm air above the cold air, it essentially creates a lid so if a boom happens, that means the sound travels up and into outer space,but with this inversion, with that lid, that sound just keeps bouncing off like a wall in an enclosed room."

Several Facebook users said the boom was frighteningly loud and they wondered if they should stay in side. Many thought something had hit their house but no reports or damage were received by the Oconee County Sheriff's Office or Emergency Services.