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(28 posts)

What's That Sound?

Started 5 months ago by jakejaramillo
Latest reply from JanS

jakejaramillo
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It's 12:55 PM Friday, Dec. 9th. We live on top of Genesee Hill and often hear a loud humming sound at odd times like now. Does anyone else hear it at the moment? Sounds like it's coming from east of here. Very annoying.

Posted 5 months ago #
jwws
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jakejaramillo,

I live on Genesee Hill as well (55th) and have been hearing it - made the dogs bark when it started initially. Thought it was landscapers or workmen in the area but haven't spotted any...

Perhaps it's a new reincarnation of the infamous hum.....

Posted 5 months ago #
miws
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Hummmmmmm.....

Mike

Posted 5 months ago #
jakejaramillo
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What's the infamous hum? BTW I stopped by Nucor and wonder if it's them; same pitch right across from them at The Shack/Luna Park Cafe. It's not terribly loud but maybe there's some weird air current thing that carries it over the ridges to here. Most outside sounds get filtered by the house walls, but not this one. It's amazing.

Posted 5 months ago #
jakejaramillo
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Still going 2:38

Posted 5 months ago #
MrsL
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Last night around 2-3 am heard a rather loud hum (although not as loud as our crying baby). We're up at High Point and thought it must be pretty loud since our windows keep a lot of outside noise out.

Posted 5 months ago #
WSB
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I've had a couple reports of this today.

Thinking it is something magnified by the ongoing coming and going fog. A couple people thought it sounded like aircraft. - TR

Posted 5 months ago #
jwws
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I think it's from the industrial area - either Nucor or Harbor Island, just louder due to air quality perhaps. Their were some loud aircraft this a.m. but this humming has been pretty constant throughout the day.

Posted 5 months ago #
schwaggy
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The airplane noise is distinctly different, but also could be heard easily today. It's the amplification or echo of planes taking off from Boeing Field and I heard a few loud ones today (there goes another one). I'm thinking it has something to do with the cold, stagnant air or fog too. The "other" noise or hum, is still going strong as of 3:30 and I cannot place it in space or time. It simply exists. It sounds like every neighbor on the block is having their yard done with blowers and mowers. Driving me nuts though, that's for sure. What is it??? I'm near the bowling alley.

Posted 5 months ago #
jwws
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schwaggy,

Great description of the ongoing hummmm - I was looking for yardworkers in the 'hood with leaf blowers too! One of this morning's planes from Boeing Field had me hoping they were going to clear our house at the top of Genesee Hill it was that loud.

Posted 5 months ago #
miws
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I can't reveal sources, since this is proprietary information, but the source of the hum is located at Upper Fauntleroy, (where WSB World Headquarters happen to be), and is a result of the ongoing gathering/sharing of news at a fever pitch.

Mike

Posted 5 months ago #
smokeycretin9
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could this be the sound? http://youtu.be/n0ze0B3mUFc

I work at a company down on Lucile that re-builds and tests them. As of late, we have moved testing outside because it was too loud indoors.

Posted 5 months ago #
johnnyblegs
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Definitely UFOs

Posted 5 months ago #
cathyjaramillo
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Seriously, I got home at 6:00 and immediately asked what is that load hum/whining noise. It appears to be undulating at times. Is do to air quality issues or is someone running a generator? How far can people hear it? On top of Genesse hill its very evasive, and irritating.

Posted 5 months ago #
jwws
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Chill folks, it's just part of living in WS!!!
.
Play Xmas music very loud and get in the spirit ( or do what my hubby does and go to Crystal for the weekend.....:-)).

Seriously I think it is related to the air inversion we have been experiencing and the "normal" sounds that a working waterfront produces - this too will pass.

Posted 5 months ago #
jakejaramillo
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Trying not to get too upset but seriously, it is hard to "chill" when it's loudest in my office where I'm trying to work, and it's been ceaseless since before I opened this topic at 1PM (it's now 7PM).

This is by no means the only occasion. If it's Nucor maybe they can think about sound-deadening materials to put around it.

Posted 5 months ago #
vmd
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This is a totally new sound - in Admiral it sounds like there is a helicopter hovering overhead. I opened the door twice to try to see where it was coming from and then went to check the blog to see if there was a major news event happening. This is not something I've heard before - I am used to waterfront noises traveling up hill at odd times during the year, but this is different.

Posted 5 months ago #
waterworld
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Sound travels faster as temperature decreases and as density increases. So both the lower temperatures and the fog will make it easier to hear things at greater distances than usual. On top of that, the inversion leads to a reflection of sound waves at the boundary between the cold dense air down here and the warmer air above and around the inversion. There was a (locally) famous incident in the UK several years ago when a massive explosion at a fuel depot was heard something like 200 miles away in the Netherlands and Belgium, apparently because of an inversion in the area of the blast.

Posted 5 months ago #
jwws
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Folks we live near a working, industrial waterfront, that said, sounds happen especially with air inversions - I think that is what we are experiencing.

On another note - I miss the sound of a fog horn (Nobska) during the night having grown up on Cape Cod.. so this hummmmm is just a new interesting chapter!

Posted 5 months ago #
smokeycretin9
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no one looked at the link? If it is coming and going, we are required to spool turbine up to 4000 rpm to test the over-speed strip mechanism. A built in safety that shuts off the steam in case of a run a way. We have to repeat this test 10 times and get the same results each run. That could explain the coming and going. BUT we shut it down at 4-5pm.

Posted 5 months ago #
jakejaramillo
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"Smokycretin9": It is still going as I type at 9:08 PM so... Also, I listened to the link you posted, and it didn't sound the same to me. I did stop by Nucor earlier in the day, standing streetside by Luna Park Cafe, and the sound emanating from Nucor was very much the same as what I've been hearing all day (and many other times before, all of them possibly in cold or inversion conditions).

Posted 5 months ago #
Gina
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The Admiral Safeway apartment project has some sort of ventilation thing going. Sounds like a large vaccuum. That is what I have been hearing for months.

Posted 5 months ago #
Nora
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I'm near the junction. It was gone for a while but it's just come back. The sound is somehow making me nauseous, and I can't block it out with music or the TV. I wish I knew some number to call for this, as it's really making me feel sick. It's less a noise than a reverberation felt in the body.

Posted 5 months ago #
EdwardJDyer
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I don't know if this comment is on point - one time I lived within a mile of a very tall antena, the kind with large wires that extended out at angles to secure it from falling over. When the winds began to come through, these wires made what I would describe a constant, loud but not deafening humm. Sometimes they would even make what sounded like metal on metal clashing...but that was rare. Like I said, don't know if this is on point...

Posted 5 months ago #
kayo
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I live in North Delridge and I have heard some very loud sounds similar to what is described here off and on. It does seem worse when there is an inversion. It almost sounds like a jet taking off or airplane noise except it goes on for too long. It is loud enough that I can hear it through the skylights in my house. I first noticed it a few weeks ago. I thought I was going crazy, but maybe not. I think it must be something industrial over on Harbor Island.

Posted 5 months ago #
JayDee
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Like waterworld said we had a very strong inversion yesterday with the inversion at 2500 feet or so. Using the idea of equal angle reflections it would seem to me that reflection off that inversion is what was transmitting the hum. Sodo Georgetown is roughly 11500 feet from the junction, and taking the approximate mid-point the equal angle is about 25 degrees which should easily route the sound to the Junction above the Dell "Ridge".

Posted 5 months ago #
Erik
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Thanks JayDee and WaterWorld for your explanations. Now, can you show us what you mean by using dance?
http://youtu.be/UlDWRZ7IYqw

Posted 5 months ago #
JanS
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vmd and Gina...indeed...the construction going on at Admiral Safeway apartments was definitely "helicopter" sounding in the last day or two. I live across the street from the construction, and thought to call TR, but then realized where it was coming from. I sort of turn the noise off, as there has been construction noise there/here since Aug. 2010...soon to be over, hopefully...

Posted 5 months ago #