STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Here in Washington and in many other places across the country, we've had a lot of snow over the past several days, and some areas also had a rare phenomenon known as frost quakes. Never heard of them. Lisa Autry with WKYU in Bowling Green, Kentucky, checked them out.
LISA AUTRY, BYLINE: Ashley Lloyd is snowed in from the winter storm at her rural home in southern Kentucky.
(SOUNDBITE OF SNOW CRUNCHING UNDERFOOT)
AUTRY: It's quiet on this country road other than the ice crackling under her feet. But Monday night, she jumped out of her recliner to a loud noise.
ASHLEY LLOYD: It sounded like the house was falling in. It was the loudest boom. It sounded like a dresser fell over in just one boom and kind of like a rocking sensation in the house.
AUTRY: What she experienced was a frost quake, often mistaken for an earthquake. Meteorologist Shane Holinde is with the Kentucky Climate Center. He says the scientific term is cryoseisms, meaning ice quakes.
SHANE HOLINDE: These loud booms were the result of moisture seeping into the soil from a major weekend winter storm.
AUTRY: It brought a lot of sleet and freezing rain into Lloyd's yard. Then temperatures plummeted to single digits to around zero.
HOLINDE: That caused the ground to rapidly freeze and expand, which created the loud booming sound.
AUTRY: Frost quakes can produce sounds similar to a cannon or fireworks. The vibration can be strong enough to shake structures and rattle windows. Lloyd says the quake only lasted a second or two at her house, but it was enough to cause three cracks in her living room wall.
LLOYD: There's a crack here in the middle and then all down this side. It goes almost to the floor. I mean, it's like a sore thumb. You can't miss it.
AUTRY: Weather experts say frost quakes are rare and usually don't cause major damage. They're more common in colder climates, especially in the northern U.S. and Canada. Louisville meteorologist Marc Weinberg posted a video on social media of a frost quake happening in southern Kentucky.
(SOUNDBITE OF FROST QUAKE BOOMING)
AUTRY: Meteorologists say as long as there are rapid drops in temperatures and the ground remains moist, more frost quakes are possible, especially during overnight hours when temperatures are at their lowest. They're startling, but mostly harmless.
For NPR News, I'm Lisa Autry in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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