Freezing temperatures Tuesday night might have caused something called a "frostquake" in southern Wisconsin, according to the National Weather Service in Sullivan. 
 
 Though frostquake is a geological rather than a meteorological term the boom felt in an area from about Columbus to Fox Lake and Johnson Creek to Oconomowoc prompted some people to call the weather service to report the event, meteorologist Justin Schultz said. 
 
 "It would sound like someone drove into your house, but as far as we know it didn't cause any damage," Schultz said. 
 
 Can confirm the frostquake. It shook the house here in Beaver Dam. @madisontraffic @NWSMKX — Bob Lesh (@Bob_Lesh) January 13, 2016 
 
 According to Schultz, the phenomenon occurs when water that drains into the ground freezes, expands and places stress on the surrounding ground. 
 
 "The fracturing of the soil and rock creates the frostquake," Schultz said of the seismic event that is actually called a cryoseism. 
 
 "This one was maybe a brief rumbling, but a very loud boom was the primary characteristic of this frostquake." 
 
 Frostquakes are relatively rare events, Schultz said, but not unheard of in Wisconsin. 
 
 "Of all the states that have reported cryoseisms, Wisconsin is among them," Schultz said. ||||| CLOSE A suspected meteor reverberated across the metro Detroit area at about 8:15 p.m. Jan. 16, 2018, sending social media into a frenzy. Local meteorologists confirm it wasn't thunder or lightning, but likely a meteor. Wochit 
 
 Screen grab of YouTube video courtesy of Mike Austin shows suspected meteor. (Photo: Mike Austin) 
 
 It sounded like thunder with a flash of light, shaking homes at about 8:15 p.m. Tuesday across metro Detroit. But experts say this wasn't lightning. 
 
 "It looks like from videos and reports we've gotten (that it's a) meteor," said Jordan Dale, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in White Lake. "However, we cannot confirm it's a meteor. At this point, we're just sticking to what we know — and it was not thunder or lightning or weather-related." 
 
 The weather service by about 9 p.m. had already received dozens of reports, ranging from Flint to Toledo. 
 
 Multiple images were posted of night skies being lit up, as social media exploded with people reporting what they saw or heard. 
 
 "It's certainly a rare occurrence," Dale said, adding that they're working to determine the cause. 
 
 More: Possible meteor over metro Detroit has everybody cracking jokes 
 
 More:What to do if you find a piece of the Michigan meteor 
 
 After reviewing several observational datasets, the NWS can confirm the flash and boom was NOT thunder or lightning, but instead a likely meteor. We continue to monitor feeds from astronomical agencies for official confirmation of a meteor. #miwx — NWS Detroit (@NWSDetroit) January 17, 2018 
 
 Fred Levine e-mailed that he was sitting in his living room in Commerce Township at about 8:19 p.m. when he saw what appeared to be lightning outside his west-facing front door. 
 
 Facebook user Claire Ceresnie posted this comment: "In Livonia I saw a big flash in the northwestern sky above my house. I thought maybe I've been watching too much sci-fi on Netflix." 
 
 More: Michigan meteor: Here's everything we know 
 
 More: Which type of meteorite landed in Michigan? NASA 90% sure it knows 
 
 And Facebook user Carol Peck Kazmierski posted: "Saw a fireball in the sky and then a couple minutes later there was a loud boom and the house shook. Grosse Ile." 
 
 Redford Township police issued this alert: "The loud flash and rumble did not occur in Redford. Please do not tie up 911 ..." 
 
 “When Armageddon is near, you better get out of of here. Looking like a Deep Impact. I ain’t afraid of no ‘stroid” #metrodetroitmeteorpic.twitter.com/MdibIt82TZ — Topher No Grace (@topherlaine) January 17, 2018 
 
 WAS IT A METEOR??? This video captures the bright light everyone has seen in the sky tonight. Courtesy of #Local4 viewer Kevin McCombs. pic.twitter.com/RY4u23jYAY — Jason Colthorp (@JasonColthorp) January 17, 2018 
 
 Saw something moving across the sky. Can first notice it over my neighbors garage moving from right to left. pic.twitter.com/hyVfUt3m5z — Kevin Colbert (@kgcolbert1) January 17, 2018 
 
 Contact Robert Allen on Twitter @rallenMI or rallen@freepress.com. 
 
 Read or Share this story: http://on.freep.com/2DpiRR2 ||||| A "particularly dangerous" and unusual spring-like storm system killed at least seven people and spun off more than a dozen tornadoes in the southeast. 
 
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 The National Weather Service had declared a "particularly dangerous situation" for a wide area spanning eastern Arkansas, northwest Mississippi, northeast Louisiana and western Tennessee on Wednesday — the first such warning anywhere in the country in a year and a half. 
 
 Most watches and warnings had expired by 8:30 p.m. ET, the National Weather Service said, but warned that severe thunderstorms were likely through the night across large parts of the Ohio and Tennessee valleys and the central Gulf Coast states. 
 
 Customers and staff scramble for shelter in the back of a Target store near Nashville, Tennessee, after hearing tornado sirens sound Wednesday. Sean C. Davis 
 
 At least seven people were confirmed dead as a result of the violent weather: 
 
 A 7-year-old boy was killed in a van on Highway 7 as severe weather swept through the town of Holly Springs, according to Marshall County, Mississippi, Coroner James Anderson 
 
 Three people were killed and two others were missing in Benton County, Mississippi, Benton County Coroner Shane Ward said late Wednesday. The dead are two men and one woman, all approximately in their 60s. The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency said at least 40 people were injured as the storms moved swiftly across the state. 
 
 A man and a woman were killed in Perry County, Tennessee, the state Health Department said. No further information was immediately available. 
 
 An 18-year-old woman was killed and an 18-month-old child was taken to a hospital in Arkansas after high winds and heavy rain uprooted a tree Wednesday morning and tossed it on a house northeast of Atkins. 
 
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 The rainy, gusty conditions — more reminiscent of June than December — spread north into the Midwest. Indiana emergency officials warned that outdoor Christmas decorations could turn into dangerous missiles and advised residents not to bother putting up inflatable decorations. 
 
 Even Santa Claus was canceled, as officials in Woodland Township, Ohio, called off their holiday light display Wednesday night at the town's rec center, NBC station WDTN of Dayton reported. Unfortunately for the town's children, it was supposed to have marked St. Nicholas' final appearance at this year's festival. 
 
 Even worse: "We're really concerned about the additional storms yet to come," said Danielle Banks, a meteorologist for The Weather Channel. 
 
 A tornado that Banks called "very large and fast-moving" hit the Bellville neighborhood, near Clarksdale, Mississippi, heavily damaged 15 homes and injured three people, one of them critically, the Coahoma County Central Fire Department told NBC News. 
 
 A crop dusting company was "wiped out," a fire dispatcher said. 
 
 A tornado was spotted Wednesday in Clarksdale, Mississippi. Gregory Flowers 
 
 Guy Malvezzi, owner of the Shack Up Inn about a mile away, said, "My partner drove down there and called me and said that there were planes that were blown all over the place and pretty much destroyed, and then one plane that looked like it hadn't been touched at all." 
 
 He added: "It happened so fast that you really didn't have a chance to be afraid, but yeah, afterward, I was scared as hell." 
 
 Tornado watches stretched Wednesday from Iowa to South Carolina until well into the evening. The University of Alabama-Birmingham suspended operations Wednesday afternoon, leaving only its hospital open. 
 
 Nashville's Mayor Megan Barry urged businesses to send their employees home early. 
 
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 "My first priority is that our citizens are safe," Barry said. "We have the best chance of making sure that happens if we manage the combination of severe weather and holiday travel by getting people off the roads and into their homes as quickly as possible." 
 
 Capt. William Swan of the Metro Office of Emergency Management said the holiday shopping rush was an added headache. 
 
 A delivery fan burns after lightning set it ablaze Wednesday near IMAGE: Van on fire near Austin, Arkansas. The driver wasn't injured. Austin, Arkansas, Police Department 
 
 "We just want people to be very conscious of the weather and try to make this holiday safe as possible," Swan told NBC station WSMV of Nashville. "It'd be nice if they could get all of their shopping and visiting done before or after the weather event." 
 
 The unseasonably weird weather is yet another manifestation of the unusually strong El Niño setting up shop off the West Coast, meteorologists told NBC News. Much of the eastern half of the country will spend a Christmas Day with temperatures in the 70s. 
 
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 And it couldn't come at a worse time, with nearly 1 in 3 of all Americans traveling this week for Christmas. 
 
 "We are seeing more than 100 million people will be traveling overall," Robert Sinclair, a spokesman for AAA, told NBC News. "That's the first time we've ever hit that record." 
 
 The great majority of them will be traveling by car, but the weather was bogging things down for airline passengers, as well. More than 275 arrivals and departures had been canceled by 10:30 p.m. ET at LaGuardia, JFK and Newark airports in the New York area, and more than 1,200 others had been delayed. 
 
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 Elsewhere, flooding was the big fear. 
 
 Parts of Florence County, South Carolina, were under a flash flood warning beginning Thursday, with Black Creek expected to top flood stage, county emergency officials said. 
 
 In Macon, Georgia, U.S. 41, better known as the Industrial Highway, was closed because an 8-foot stretch was washed out, and the Walker Road Landfill in south Bibb County was closed until further notice because of rising water. 
 
 This is Commissioners Creek in Jones County overflowing today. Stay with @41FirstAlert for weather updates. pic.twitter.com/C38LOmPJZG — 41NBC / WMGT-DT (@41NBC) December 23, 2015 
 
 Meanwhile, hail approaching the size of tennis balls was reported across parts of Arkansas, Mississippi and Tennessee. 
 
 Big hail south of Jonesboro https://t.co/doT5FXr7hr — NWS Memphis (@NWSMemphis) December 23, 2015 
 
 At the Outlets of Mississippi, in Pearl, mall managers mobilized after they got a text message blast warning that severe weather was on its way, NBC station WLBT of Jackson reported. 
 
 "We have a weather radio in my office and the director of operations' office," said Kathy Hackshaw, the mall's general manager. "The chief of police and I contact each other directly through cellphone." 
 
 But the ominous clouds and the brisk winds weren't deterring last-minute Christmas shoppers. 
 
 "We put our faith in God and go on," Arnold Brown of Sontag, Mississippi, told WLBT.
– A weather event that a National Weather Service meteorologist says "[sounds] like someone drove into your house" likely took place in southern Wisconsin on Tuesday night, and it wasn't a tornado, lightning strike, or earthquake. Instead, it was what's called a "frostquake," the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports, a rare happening in the Badger State that takes place when water that seeps into the ground freezes and expands, fracturing the ground around it. Although no damage has been called in from the so-called cryoseism, that didn't stop the extreme-weather occurrence from frightening locals. "[Loud] boom and house rumbling at 8:30 here outside of Beaver Dam WI. Crazy. Kids were scared," one resident tweeted. One other possibility for those who heard noises: "[Booms] could have been from Air Force planes on exercise per media," tweeted NWS Milwaukee. (Meanwhile, here's what El Niño has in store for the rest of us this winter.)