In examining hundreds of reports of sounds from electrophonic bolides I was led to group them into three distinct types: sharp, staccato and smooth. Sharp sound descriptors include pops, cracks, bangs and booms. They are usually coincident with sudden flares or explosive fragmentations of the fireball and can occur for fireballs that are not large or bright enough to create sustained sounds. Of these, smooth sounds are described by at least fifteen adjectives such as hissing, swishing, rushing or roaring. The staccato group seem to be a mixture of sharp and smooth sounds, reported as crackling, sizzling or rustling. An intriguing possibility is that the type of sound relates to the differences in composition of the meteoroid as described in the previous page.

One of the most original and evocative descriptions is to found in David Seargent's book "Genesis Stone? The Murchison Meteorite and the Beginnings of Life" in which he quotes a report from rural Victoria, Australia:

"... a lady ... while spending the morning tending her garden, was startled by a hissing noise that reminded her rather strongly of car tyres being driven over a wet road. The noise seemed to emanate from a southerly direction and, there being neither cars nor roads nor excessive moisture in that immediate vicinity, she deemed it sufficiently odd to glance up from her gardening and investigate what could be making such a sound. At first glance, she saw what she thought was the Sun, but this thought was dismissed the instant it occurred because in that part of the world the Sun is never seen in the southern sky!"

A 1989 fireball over rural New South Wales generated another report where the electrophonic sounds are likened to the noise of motor vehicles. The witness, interviewed on tape by Rob McNaught, was about 130 km from the path of the fireball.

(She) heard "what sounded like a heavily laden semi-trailer coming to the farm." She sat up in bed and then saw the fireball appear in the window. "The noise seemed to follow the fireball across the sky and sounded like an engine turning over."

Here is a 1990 report from 390 km NE of Moscow, Russia:

"... saw fireball in cloudless sky. Duration 2-3 s. after catching sight out of (the) corner of (my) eye. Very windy conditions. Heard crackle and hissing like sounds of firewood burning, intensity about third that of electric shaver. Sound came from the fireball during the whole flight and caused feeling of anxiety and uneasiness."

In 1992 veteran fireball reporter Bob Pugh of Oregon, USA, collected several reports of a large fireball which passed over the Coos Bay region. Besides reports of hissing, crackling and popping sounds at the same time as the fireball was seen, there was a report of a house trembling and a metal lamp making a static-sizzling sound for 2-3 s. At Winston OR a shock was felt inside an automobile. Near Diamond Lake Junction an observer felt a pressure on his chest at the time of the fireball.

There are a number of reports like the above one mentioning electrical effects as well as electrophonic sounds, which in such cases may be quite loud.

Electrophonic sounds from meteor fireballs have not earned quite as many mentions in literary works as the sounds of aurorae, but here is a fine example by James Thurber:

A huge pink comet, Sire, just barely missed the Earth a little while ago.
It made an awful hissing sound like hot irons stuck in water.

A much earlier description was found by the Russian meteoriticist E L Krinov in the Lavrentenko Annals of 109 AD describing "... a large serpent falling from the clouds ... all this time the Earth was rattling ..."

And finally, from reading the above reports and recalling the picture of the Peekskill fireball, what might you conclude from this extract from the Christian Bible?

ACTS OF THE APOSTLES, Chapter 2:

1. When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2. And suddenly a sound came from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. 3. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributed and resting on each one of them. 4. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the spirit gave them utterance.

I think I'd have been scared too! If you wish to find out about other manifestations of electrophonic sounds, return to the geophysical electrophonics page. Thanks for your time.