North Routt residents trying to solve mystery of what rattled some homes and a fire station Thursday morning
STEAMBOAT SPRINGS — Residents in North Routt County are still trying to figure out what caused some homes and a fire station to rattle from the Clark area all the way to the shores of Steamboat Lake on Thursday morning.
Some residents wondered whether it was a sonic boom, an earthquake, or an avalanche.
But with no offical reports of an earthquake made in the area that day, the source of the boom appears to remain a mystery.
Residents started to try to solve the mystery when North Routt Rumors, a local news source in the area, asked its Facebook fans whether anyone else had experienced what felt like a “roof sliding” between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. Thursday.
A resident who lives on Seedhouse Road almost a mile from Routt County 129, reported “it sounded like a sonic boom, and the house shook a little bit.”
Another person east of Steamboat Lake reported that while they didn’t feel the ground shake, “it was like being next to a big firework going off like a sound wave or something you just kinda felt it then it was gone, not like a wind gust.”
And North Routt Fire Chief Mike Swinsick said his fire station shook during the event.
Swinsick said he checked for earthquake reports online but didn’t find anything that would explain the phenomena in North Routt.
An earthquake mapping service did not record any in Routt County, he noted.
Others wondered whether it was a sonic boom from an aircraft.
Airport managers in Steamboat Springs and Hayden cast doubt on that theory Friday.
Steamboat Springs Airport Manager Stacie Fain told Steamboat Today she was not aware of anything aircraft related on Thursday that would have been heard or felt in North Routt.
Yampa Valley Regional Airport Manager Kevin Booth also reported no military aircraft in the area.
“Sonic boom would be pretty definitive and highly unlikely in airspace above North Routt (more likely under a military training area), so I’d expect it to be non-aircraft related,” he wrote in an email.
Did you feel a shake or hear a boom in North Routt on Thursday? Leave a comment below.
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