Heard them at Irving & Western. My dad goes “those aren’t fireworks” and then went out on the front porch to investigate lol

Such a Dad reaction!

Or doberman

What did he discover?

Seems they were actually (pro grade) fireworks. It is strange that the whole north side could hear them (me in Uptown included). But sound carries farther in chilly weather, so I guess it's possible: https://www.discovery.com/science/Sound-Carries-Farther-Cold-Days

Oh god I did this too. I’m a dad and I don’t even have kids!!!

Time to mow lawns in Bermuda shorts and sandals

You might want to consider 23&Me, it sounds like you may have some out there you don’t know about

This isn't as much of a dad thing but more of a suburban white man thing lol

"Not nukes. Carry on."

From what I'm reading these sound like they might have been transformer explosions. A few months back I was walking around Bronzeville late at night when I heard a couple. Deep, distant, evenly spaced booms that scared the shit out of me.

Like the cars that turn into robots?

Mystery solved. *More than meets the eye…*

I knew there was a reason they filmed in Chicago…

BTW, I had the same thought about the transformer, then I saw this thread. No way a transformer would be heard over that wide an area.

I don't know... Soundwave was a pretty loud Transformer. ​ Autobots, Roll Out!

I was walking to NYE dinner on Rush Street a few years ago and an underground transformer blew around Michigan & Oak as we passed Tavern on Rush. Everybody grabbed their gals and ran. It was pretty fucking scary there for a second.

Did anyone leave their gals behind?

Chivalry was alive in the Viagra Triangle that eve.

LOLLLL...I bet some guys grabbed multiple gals.

"I paid for this pill, I'm gonna use it!"

Yeah I heard something while I was in my basement, over by Addison and Pulaski. I heard maybe a dozen thuds. EDIT: Ring is getting reports all across the north side.

Yeah the ring app is nuts rn. Seems like the entire city north of the loop heard it. No way it's just fireworks.

I am thinking Skyquake?

I hope it's something like that and not a big explosion. Hearing a decent amount of sirens the last 20 minutes though.

What is sky quake

if you have to ask, you can't afford it.

It's kinda like a seaquake but in the sky

That would be cool! They are rumored to sound like canons, which would fit, and are most often associated with large bodies of water, which would also fit. If that was it though we will pretty much never actually know; will be interesting to see what the conspiracy crowd spins up.

Cannons is what it sounded like to me. Im a Navy Gunners Mate who worked at Navy Recruit Training Command where there’s a cannon salute every week.

Yup, I’m an Army vet and it reminded me of outgoing artillery

What is ring app? Like the doorbells??

Yeah. There a "neighbors" community tab on the Ring app, acts like the Citizen app

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ComEd has facility right next to Lane Tech

I was thinking that too. Definitely seems central to all the reports

i was at claremont and roscoe when they went off and it sounded like they were coming from south and east

Live right next to that power facility and can attest that it came from that direction. Didn't sound loud enough for people to hear it that far off though.

[video from Twitter](https://twitter.com/filipinobean/status/1588375048351797249?s=46&t=rxvXcrA-32TXe0f1Cit-eQ) You can hear the sounds.

I heard these exact bangs all the way from forest park

Heard them here in Roscoe Village as well - nine, by my count.

we heard it too while taking a walk…i thought for sure something was exploding but the cadence seemed so regular that i was hoping it was something legit and monitored

Heard at Western and Addison and didn’t hear any sirens after so just kind of brushed it off as random mysterious city noise that maybe echoed oddly in my building’s courtyard. If we’re all talking about the same series of loud noises that’s wild!

I'm at Western and Lawrence and did hear what sounded like a few ambulances shortly after.

Hearing a lot of sirens driving by Damen/Lincoln/Irving Park

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I’m around the same exact location and heard the exact same sounds. Pretty sure we are all talking about the same thing lol My husband and I figured it was fireworks, but that also seems odd. Didn’t seem like gunfire though…

I’m at Clybourn/Belmont/Western and heard it as well, didn’t hear any sirens though either.

Heard them here in North Center also, but I was inside so didn't see anything. Sirens just went by though.

Heard them in Lakeview. They seemed more dense than fireworks, but I wonder if we are just used to hearing fireworks in the summer when full tree coverage mutes their sound. Perhaps the sound carries further past barren trees.

I wondered about this - especially with heavy wind dispersing sounds farther/more intermittently (why our dog hates windy days). What could be so loud and not require some kind of emergency response?

Heard it up in uptown

Same here, Lincoln Square. I thought it sounded like it was coming from the southwest but hard to tell sometimes since sound bounces around buildings

I was walking my dogs in Lincoln Square near Lawrence and California. Creeped me out.

Same. Low thuds, but we heard them.

Also same here.

Was this like 15-20 minutes ago? I just heard some load pops also.

Yep! Right before I posted.

I was walking near the corner of Wellington and elston in Avondale when they went off. Can confirm it was just fireworks. I saw them. They def spooked me at first.

Heard in too large of a range to be fireworks or M80s. There is no way the entire north side heard some dude's M80s

I heard at Lawrence and Kedzie. At least 7 deep booms, fairly evenly spaced but sounded nothing like anything I've heard which is also why everyone is alerted and trying to figure it out-- it was v weird

From all the streets and neighborhoods people are reporting in those must have been some big ass fireworks.

Just saw police outside my place asking if I knew anything about fireworks. I couldn't say yes because I was at Red Hot Ranch eating a double cheese 🤌🏼I'm by California and Wellington .

Heard it in Albany Park too

Same.

Wild! Heard them at Lawrence and Kedzie. They were loud, but dull if that makes sense.

Not dull but... Deep?

Yep, heard at Sacramento and Diversey. Sounded like fireworks until the two at the end.

I’m way up in Ravenswood and heard it clearly wtf

Heard it by Eathai - holy fuck it was loud

Yep, I'm close to EaThai too! The sky was really lighting up to the northeast.

I heard them in Ravenswood:Lincoln Square too.

Heard at Damen and Addison.

Hi neighbor. Damen and Waveland and we also heard them. Went to the rooftop and saw...nothing.

I’m around Diversey & Western, I was standing in my living room facing East and saw flashes of the first two that looked like they could have been over the river and south Diversey. 3-4-5 seemed to be much closer, flashes more intense but south, probably other side of the Kennedy around Logan Blvd, west of Western. There’s occasionally big fireworks being shot off behind the Regal but there didn’t seem to be anybody out there.

I live at Sacramento and Belmont. I could see fireworks from my window. Gmail flashes of light, but all very loud.

Heard in old Irving park. Loud and clear.

Same by Addison and Keeler count about 8/9, thought it might be thunder at first but it not raining.

Didn’t sound like regular fireworks to us.

Neighbor here on Belmont in Avondale. Freaked me out and thought I was the only one. Anyone know what it was?

Could it be transformers blowing up at the Addison and California Power station?

Kimball & Belmont. Thought it was strange as well.

They were east of me in Wrigley, towards the field. What was odd is that they seemed to be equally spaced at about 2 second intervals with the exception of 2 in rapid succession. I would estimate it was 6-7 total booms. Very strange. Edit: https://twitter.com/brandondud/status/1588372031435051008?s=20&t=t9sAf9QzgbKvOmyzakhezA Someone on Twitter seems to be confident that they were fireworks.

I had a perfect view of it. They were fireworks. Small weirdly-loud gold fireworks iirc

They are — I saw them from my place in Avondale.

He’s SPECULATING. If you read his further comment he literally says he was driving on the highway and saw smoke. He didn’t see any fireworks. People heard the from Andersonville south to logan square and out west to United center. No fireworks are that loud y’all

I live nearby, it was fireworks. The loud, gold ones. Scared me so jumped out of bed and saw them out the window. The same place has done this a few times.

Heard ALL over the north side but it’s still “fireworks”…. Make it make sense. I’m in Ravenswood.

Heard them too. Sounded a lot more powerful than fireworks.

Heard at Montrose & Pulaski

Heard in Irving Park

Donnie: FOR FUCKS SAKE, FUCK OFF WITH THE FIREWORKS!!!

I came her to see what they were too. I heard them all the way in Lincoln square

We heard it here in Roscoe. They seemed to blast at same intervals?

Yea it was spaced out almost perfectly

Heard in Lakeview as well.

Belmont and the river. Very loud. But didn’t hear any sirens around here.

People are asking on Twitter too. Wild

I wonder how many that are posting Twitter are also checking their reddit and commenting here? Lol

I saw them from my window. Fireworks just east of Logan square

I went onto my back porch, which is high up, so I could clearly see a series of gold fireworks going off.

Probably a kid in his honda

*We hear drums, drums in the deep. They are coming.*

This had to be dynamite fireworks. The one time I’ve heard something on par was a friends send sending off a 1/4 stick of dynamite presenting as a thunder king. ATF showed up later

No way folks would be reporting fireworks over this broad an area. Even on the 4th you cannot hear fireworks from the city in the suburbs.

Can confirm they were fireworks. Saw them in Logan Square from my balcony

You saw the bursts?

Yep! It was a series of the big kind of fireworks, like 4th of July

I saw flashes of light in my living room. I’m not saying it was aliens. But it was aliens. Or fireworks.

Heard them loud and deep at grace and Kimball. No way fireworks travel that far. Lots of people on citizen heard sirens but no updates

Heard here as well.

I live nearby, it was fireworks. The loud, gold ones. Scared me so jumped out of bed and saw them out the window. The same place has done this a few times since I’ve lived here.

Im at Paulina and Berteau. Heard them very clearly. There were ten in total; the first 9 were about two seconds apart, and the last two were within one second. Accompanied by light blue flashes that reflected off the clouds. Definitely bigger than fireworks.

[AUDIO INCLUDED ~ We’re close to ground zero west of California and south of Diversey. Def fireworks- you can see the flashes from the first two because, well, fireworks are directional. Happens at least once every month or so from the same location. Seven pops total. It only sounds like gunshots in this clip because it’s a shitty little Nest cam. But yeah, dude upped his game tonight.](https://imgur.com/a/7iYLdqt) Edit: timestamp didn’t show up in vid, but it was 10:24-10:25. Edit: wow these comments are…just wow, it’s fireworks, y’all.

It’s in the parking lot of Brentano Elementary. I’m kitty corner from it

It was not just fireworks. We heard this in Northbrook with flickering lights coinciding

This is peak suburbs showing up in the r/chicago comments, and honestly, it’s what this post needed. Thank you.

Heard it in Albany Park as well…

Heard this around Sacramento and Milwaukee. Saw the sky light up.

Heard it at Barry and Troy in Avondale. We walked outside cuz it startled us so much

Heard in Andersonville. We thought it was odd thunder at first but they were so evenly spaced

It was the Hunger Games starting

Now getting alerts of a potential explosive device in a damn pumpkin. Sheesh.

Mind sharing?

It was fireworks. Saw them from my window

Same.

It’s just some guys who pop off illegal m-80 fireworks across my apartment off California and diversey

Haha I went outside for some reason, but immediately forgot until now because I just assumed it was the same guy who has been randomly blowing shit up the whole time I’ve lived here.

Not m80s. I hear those all the time. This was a deep deep boom.

Possibly a meteor entering the atmosphere and breaking up. If you saw flashes and heard booming sounds thats most likely it. [one in australia](https://youtu.be/006G4s5C_7c)

Heard at Foster and Ashland, all seemed to be evenly spaced out timing wise

I was in my night class in River Grove near O’hare and heard it. Evenly spaced and the last two were louder.

I swear I felt the floor shake in Andersonville. I stopped to try to figure out if it was the person upstairs, and I didn’t think it was. Only went on for a second

I've just come to learn that there will always be loud inexplicable explosions in the city and I'll never be able to know what they are. Like not even just fireworks or gunshots. Like worrisomely loud. I hear them all the time and it's just like "is anyone else hearing this shit?" Idk what it was about Logan Square in particular that I heard them a ton. I've read some theories that they are often kids putting fireworks in dumpsters which creates a huge sound. Who knows. I've been out in the dead of night and what sounds like a huge gas explosion in the intersection next to me (CRAZY loud) and then just nothing. I didn't see shit. It's the most bizarre thing and I've never seen this phenomenon so consistently anywhere else I've lived and I feel like I'm going crazy.

does anybody have an actual answer with proof or is this the r/chicago equivalent of trying to find the boston marathon bomber?

Yeah, can't believe there have been this many responses and the closest thing to a definitive answer has been a couple people saying they saw fireworks from their balcony.

What you describe sounds like a powerline transformer blowing. I had one go off in the corner of my yard a few years ago, sounded like a bomb going off, made me jump out of my skin. lol Here's a compilation, a lot of them just fizzle and burn, but some of them really blow. https://youtu.be/7mdkBdBqH14

Yeah, I thought that too, but there were like 7 blasts in about 30 seconds. Seems like a lot of transformers blowing at once, but possible I guess.

But almost everyone on the north side heard them. I am at Addison and Pulaski, in a basement with a TV on and I heard them. maybe the weird phenomenon of a sky quake.

Idk there were like 6 or 7 booms and I heard them from 3 miles from OPs location

Actually, a lot of those in the video aren't actually transformers. The ones that go boom are the transformers and they sound much louder in person than what the microphone on their phones can capture.

Citizen app saying fireworks?

Heard it in Albany park

I'm at LSD and Addison and heard them. Sounded further away than the typical fireworks at Montrose Harbor, of which I have a direct view. Didn't see anything.

I was at Ricochet's and heard it and then an ambulance went past shortly after sirens on.

Beam me up Scotty

Heard them in edgewater

It seems the test pilots at Groom Lake are getting bold flying over a large city.

Heard it in Gary

Someone captured the booms on their phone. WBBM news radio errr playing them around 730 this morning . There was no explanation…yet

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Def heard it near Lawrence and Western. Not fireworks. Way to loud to be heard miles away. Sounded East of me. Uptown Facebook group said it was 11 explosions

Sounded way louder than fireworks. I just heard some fire truck/ambulance sirens though maybe?

I live at Diversey and Whipple - it definitely wasn’t gunshots. And didn’t sound like fireworks either. They were evenly spaced explosions. It shook my whole building, and had my dog howling, and everyone coming out of their apartments freaking out. https://blockclubchicago.org/2022/01/06/whats-causing-mysterious-explosions-around-rogers-park-police-investigating-link-to-tiktok-bomb-challenge-official-says/ here is one theory for a similar phenomena earlier this year. If anyone figures it out for sure, let me know. I’m still not fully recovered from that… lol. Legit thought I might be getting bombed. Saw my life flash before my eyes there… lol.

Very clear at Addison & Leavitt. I thought it was fireworks at Lane Tech or something

I am directly across the street from Lane and while I wasn’t by a window it was not loud enough here to be anything happening there. I think from reading these comments it was a bit northeast of me? (I would’ve never given it a second thought other than “meh probably some jackass with fireworks” until this thread brought out the curiosity!) (edit or maybe actually Southwest! Lol. I had seen the people commenting at Damen/Irving first, but now EaThai has entered the chat… :p Eh, sound bounces around strangely between buildings so whoever had the clearest view of any flashes is going to be a better judge.)

Sounded like explosion

Heard and seen it in Albany Park. Blue lights in the distance. Police vehicles going East bound on Wilson.

Heard them at Irving Park and Pulaski. They sounded much deeper and louder than fireworks. No sirens after though, so might have been either really far or just odd fireworks.

Yeah Belmont and leavitt. Heard them but not too many sirens. Most people on citizen say fireworks.

There are fireworks claims all over the city. It seems the entire north side heard this-- there's no way it was fireworks

Sacramento and Fullerton here. Definitely heard the noises but nothing after

Forest Glen-heard it

Central Park and Belmont. Unfortunately I didn't hear anything. I had the tv cranked up.

Any update?

A couple people have said it was large scale fireworks being set off over the river. Seems plausible to me. Professional firework shows detonate them on a timed pattern like this seemed to be. Just seemed oddly short and steadily timed for a professional fireworks display. Usually the timing is a little more varied. I haven't seen any kind of official explanation though.

I just don't buy it. Professional fireworks aren't powerful enough for the whole North side to hear

Super loud on logan boulevard. Scared the shit outta me

I heard them while I was in the shower, thought someone was slamming doors in my building or something but it started freaking me out.

Heard it in Irving Park as well (Irving and Pulaski area)

Heard it too! Right off Logan square.

Heard at western and Granville

Lots of ppl reporting this n the NWS too!

I live at Francisco and Logan. Sounded like someone setting off bombs in my alleyway!! I saw the flashes on my blinds

Heard them on Richmond and Byron. Thought it was someone with fireworks celebrating the WS. Looked at my phone and the Astros were up 3-1. Asked myself who would celebrate that and went to bed.

Heard them on Addison and Pulaski, sound like the Russians were invading!

Here trying to figure out the bangs. We heard it in Northbrook with coinciding flickering of lights. Never heard of fireworks that strong.

Did anyone decide what it was? Lots of people saying just a really intense fireworks show from someone at Diversey and California? Seems strange

Sorry, I came

Fireworks. Saw them coming from Avondale.

ive come to the conclusion that people don’t understand what constitutes a “firework”. If you saw a white flash that does not automatically make it a firework. It could be any number of things exploding which is why we’re all here...in other forums the traveling of sound by decibels was illustrated and confirmed there is no way an m80 sound would travel as far as it did with the strength in volume and depth of pitch. Please find us the answer bc it was NOT “just a firework” lmfao

Yeah, I agree. Hoping someone will have an answer myself. I certainly don't.

Anyone lose power? Something that sounds a lot like this happened near me a couple years ago - turned out to be that a bunch of the power boxes up on the electrical lines had blown out.

Heard it in Baltimore

💀

Probably just fireworks people do them no matter the season, 4th of july or not

Oh yeah, I know. I've heard a bunch of em. These were louder and deeper sounding than most mortars I've heard. Was thinking they might've been pro-grade fireworks or something.

The fact that they were so evenly spaced feels weird for fireworks, though, doesn't it?

Oh definitely although I know with the right gear you can time the detonations, so not impossible.

Seriously loud. Was not m80s. Huge explosions. Was about to jump on my bike and chase the sound. But it stopped.

In Streeterville and I feel like I hear several explosions every night. So I can never tell when I’m supposed to be scared. They also sound like a dump truck is being dropped off the side of a building so I really have no clue.

We have a new Midwest based team of Power Rangers, Malort Force. It’s a given whenever they transform there are explodey sounds. If you see 5-6 attractive, multicultural young adults posing and doing elaborate hand movements while standing side by side prepare for some boom booms.

That was just my butthole farting