Tuesday Night 'Big Bang' Explained

Some local residents were startled Tuesday night when a loud bang and flash of light went off. Some locals said that boom was so heavy that it shook their homes.

Right after the bang, residents took to social media to figure out what they had just heard, with one Three Village Patch reader noting that, "My friends as far as Smithtown, Kings Park, Lake Grove and even Patchogue are all saying the heard the same thing."

Meteor? Explosion? Plane? Alien invasion? No, just good ol' thunder and lightning, a spokesperson from the National Weather Service confirmed Wednesday.

The NWS representative said that the organization put out a special weather statement about the rumbles at 9:46 p.m., which is likely what residents heard.

He said that snow squalls, embedded thunder and lightning strikes moved through the area between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. that night. However, there's no explanation for why the thunder clap was so loud. Perhaps spring, which officially started today, was giving this long winter one heck of knock out.

Unfortunately, while spring has sprung, it looks like Three Village isn't done with the cold weather quite yet. According to the NWS, snow showers are likely early Thursday morning and temperatures will remain in the low 40s for the rest of the week.