How A Lightning Strike Shook Houses In Lawton, Oklahoma

Thursday was a long and wild severe weather day across Oklahoma. Southwest Oklahoma wasn't hit with severe weather till the late evening hours, but before any storms reached Lawton, residents across town were stirred from slumber when a loud, thunder-like boom radiated through town.

Lawton residents are no strangers to loud booms that shake houses. Due to their proximity to Fort Sill, longtime Lawton citizens are desensitized to most loud noises and often times earthquakes.

So when there's severe weather in the area, thunder doesn't cause Lawton citizens to flinch or wake up in the middle of the night. However, the loud boom that impacted Lawton late Thursday evening was different, and citizens could tell it wasn't thunder or Fort Sill.

A thunder-like boom impacted Lawton late Thursday evening before severe storms reached the area.

As I was getting ready for bed Thursday evening, I was tuning in to Meteorologist Austin Bowling's live storm coverage on the Texoma Weather Lab Facebook page. Just before 11 p.m. a loud boom radiated and shook my whole house.

On the live broadcast, Bowling heard it too at his Lawton home, and it shocked both of us and others in Lawton tuning into the broadcast. Some viewers commented saying, "just heard a loud boom, like rolling thunder, in Lawton."

I had let my dogs out right before the mysterious boom, and it was barely sprinkling outside. And when I looked at the radar on Bowling's live broadcast after the boom, the biggest storms were still a few hours out from Lawton. So if that loud boom wasn't caused by thunder or Fort Sill, what was it?

A bolt of lightning struck near Lawton's Central Plaza on Thursday evening, causing a loud, vibrating boom across town.

A few minutes after the boom, Bowling looked through his software's lightning detection and was able to determine that the loud boom that shook Lawton was actually caused by a lightning bolt that struck near Central Plaza.

At about two hours and fourteen minutes into the now recorded broadcast, you can see when Bowling made the discovery of what caused the mystery boom heard around Lawton late Thursday evening.

So I guess Lawton residents can now add giant lightning bolts to the list of things that cause loud booms in the area.