Interestingly, I have been hearing strange sounds at night where I am - just outside Manchester, in the UK.
Now, I live about 5km from Manchester Airport, so I have spent my entire life hearing aircraft in flight, revving their engines, idling and taxiing in
the distance. You get used to it.
But recently, over I would guess the last three or four months, a new sound has been added to the mix. What I can only describe as a loud, varying
sine-wave sort of sound.
At first, I thought it might be noise pollution from the Beetham Tower in Manchester, which is about 10km away. If you have never come across it
before, the design of a large glass blade on the top of Manchester's tallest building caused a horrendously loud oscillating sound when hit by strong
winds, which could be heard all over Manchester, and even disrupted filming of TV programs at Granada TV. You can hear the sound here - bear in mind
that it was incredibly loud:
NOTE: this is NOT the sound I hear at night. I say "at first" above, because after a while I recalled that the blade was recently refitted (again)
to eradicate the noise. But there is something else that rules the tower out as the source of the noise: this new noise is
every night, windy or
not, and it only seems to happen between maybe 1am and 3-4am. and rather than a constant tone, comes and goes, and can often be multiple tones at
once. (the tower only ever produces a single tone, at almost middle C, which although it can fade with the wind, never includes other harmonic tones
alongside it).
I also ruled out air traffic at the airport as it would seem odd that if the cause of the noise is a plane, it only ever occurs at certain times of
the night (I have never heard it during the day). It does sound a
little like turbine noise, but there is no *rumble* accompanying it, which is
always present when I hear a jet engine being revved or spooled up. And it can go on for hours without stopping.
So I find myself very intrigued as to what the noise might be, and if it is at all similar to the one in Sudbury (and also intrigued that I don't
find any mention of it in local press or media). It has been driving me nuts for weeks - not because it is loud (which it is) but because I want to
know what it is!
I will try to record the sound tonight and post it on here in case anyone can identify it or (pardon the pun) in case it rings any bells.
[edit on 21-8-2008 by dogsounds]
[edit on 21-8-2008 by dogsounds]
It's the Earth itself makeing the hum.