Rattled doors and windows and shaking houses in Carlsbad Monday night were from a sonic boom generated by U.S. Air Force fighter jets from Holloman Air Force Base near Alamogordo.

Denise Ottaviano, Holloman spokesperson, said two F-16 jets performed air maneuvers over the City of Carlsbad Monday around 9:30 p.m.

“Made my windows shake on Greene Street. It made my dogs go crazy. We thought someone had wrecked,” wrote Christina Ortiz on the Carlsbad 411 Facebook page.

More:State to Air Force: Clean up contamination at Holloman

The sonic boom was reported on social media Monday night.

“The F-16s were flying in airspace and at an altitude authorized for sonic events,” Ottaviano said.

An F-16 has a wingspan of 33 feet and are 16 feet tall and nearly 50 feet long, read a U.S. Air Force fact sheet.

F-16s fly at speeds of 1,500 miles per hour and can rise to an altitude of 50,000 feet, per the fact sheet.

“It is a part of an F-16 fighter pilot's training curriculum to occasionally fly speeds that break the sound barrier,” Ottaviano said.

Fighting jets can fly faster than 750 miles per hour and that presents a sound similar to thunder, per a separate U.S. Air Force fact sheet.

“An aircraft traveling through the atmosphere continuously produces air-pressure waves similar to the water waves caused by a ship's bow,” according to the fact sheet.

 “When the aircraft exceeds the speed of sound, these pressure waves combine and form shock waves which travel forward from the generation or "release" point,” cited the fact sheet.

More:Legacy of Liberty Air Show enthralls at Holloman AFB. A look at the aircraft, old and new.

The sound heard on the ground as a "sonic boom" is the sudden onset and release of pressure after the buildup by the shock wave or "peak overpressure,” explained the fact sheet.

“The change in pressure caused by sonic boom is only a few pounds per square foot -- about the same pressure change we experience on an elevator as it descends two or three floors -- in a much shorter time period. It is the magnitude of this peak overpressure that describes a sonic boom,” the fact sheet read.

Mike Smith can be reached at 575-628-5546 or by email at MSmith@currentargus.com or @ArgusMichae on Twitter. 

Sign up for our newsletter, the Daily Briefing, to get stories like this one delivered straight to your inbox every morning. https://profile.currentargus.com/newsletters/daily-briefing/