California, South SF Bay Area - LISTEN and record! Going on now!

A few days ago, at 3 am, on Feb 4th, a strange sound started. I don't know if it's the Strange Sound but it's been going on ever since! Many friends in the area, as well as my wife, have heard it. It's going on RIGHT NOW!

I'm calling a challenge for people to go outside and record it! Do you hear it??

Here's a precise description of it, followed by some sounds that seem similar in nature.

It's a low rumbling sound, coming from the South (of me; I live in Santa Clara). It is constant in nature with slight variations due to wind changes. It sounds very much like a jet engine idling or highway traffic noise but remains exactly the same night and day, same during slow rush hour traffic or dead of night.

I live 3 miles from San Jose Airport and can hear airplanes clearly. That being said I have lived in the area much of my life and also worked at an airport for a few major airlines. This noise IS NOT airport or commercial plane related... it sounds similar but unless someone parked a plane somewere and is letting it sit for days it is not an airplane. You can also clearly hear airplanes above and separate from this sound.

If you know this area you know that Santa Clara is a highly industrial and engineering based area. As I said, I've lived in the area a long time and haven't heard any sound that's precise and continuous like this.

One other possibility: someone I know mentioned they do testing in the San Jose south foothills for "something" and said they might be testing a new engine. I haven't found anything about this and the friend had no more info on the matter.

I'll be getting on my roof tonight to record the sound, provided it hasn't stopped. I recorded a video today but besides the background rumble planes were taking off or landing pretty frequently and there was traffic noise, so hard to make it out on the video.

Do you hear it!??

Mods, if this would be better suited for an ATS specific section like Grey Area plz move it accordingly. As so far it's just my own personal experience without the recorded sounds I felt it might be better in this section.

you live 3 miles North of the airport?
2nd line

reply to post by BaZooKaJ


rather not give precise location where I live, but close to the airport. Anyone in the South Bay should be able to hear this I imagine. I might be taking a drive around tonight and do some checking.

I'm in Oakland (for those who are not familiar with the area, that's about 35-40 miles north of Santa Clara, where the OP is), and I've been hearing this sound for long periods the past few days. Today I was taking a nap between 4pm and 5pm and it woke me up. The sound continued for awhile afterward; here, it lasts varying lengths of time. I myself wondered if this was the sound. I too am quite familiar with airport sounds; I'm about 5 miles from the airport, and it does not sound like normal comings and goings, nor does it sound like any military aircraft I've heard or am familiar with.

This would also tend to rule out testing of any sort around Santa Clara--too far away. I might also point out that it's monotonic, and extraordinarily loud as compared to normal aircraft sounds--unless they're in someone's driveway a block or so away....

So I put this on facebook to ask friends in the area to check it out.

Turns out people from other places have been hearing! Someone (whom I know well and trust) in Kirkland, Washington said she's also been hearing it for a few days and it's driving her crazy. Her husband thought it was traffic noise but, as with South Bay sound, it's also constant day and night!

it's raining.... but I'll get a video/audio of this soon as I can.

Hope others will too!

I live almost next door, relatively speaking.

There is so much traffic noise, and nearby Moffett, I can heard maintenance turns, it is hard to hear anything through all the background noise.

I have to admit, just the other night, I heard something like a semi, but deeper, smoother, and omni-directional, and it wasn't moving, like freeway sounds.

This went on for a long time. I didn't measure the time, but far far longer than a passing semi.

It made me think about these strange sounds being reported everywhere.

The thing is, the sounds was low in pitch, smooth, and like I said, omni-directional, which was the eerie part.

I like to go out at night, look at the stars, and listen to the various sounds. All the background noise can be traced to a source, it is all directional. Somewhere over there someone with a loud engine is punching it. Some semi is slowing down. This sound seemed to come from everywhere.

Oh yeah, the rocket factory south of San Jose closed down. I don't think there is anything going on there now.

And from my understanding the wind tunnel at Nasa Aimes is no longer functional either. Used to be able to hear that baby firing up back in the day.

reply to post by poet1b


Thanks for the replies. I also feel the sound was omni-directional in a sense. It seemed to originate South of me but somehow felt "fuller" than a far off sound. Pretty bizarre!

Update:

It rained all that night, the next night the sound was gone. Haven't heard it sense...

If there really is something to all these weird sounds and such I imagine there will be no question at some point.

So the sound started up again!! Here's a recording from my roof at 2:42 am today.



Sadly I just found out that when the sound is on high my video camera makes a digital, choppy chirping sound which I think might be related to a focusing servo or something, so expect to hear that. Gotta say the quality is just not great on this video so I hope you can hear it. I'll get a better recording device if the sounds persists, but this is the best I got right now.

Skip ahead to 1:30 if you wanna jump right to the silence.

Just wanted to bump this during daylight hours in the U.S.

Anyone else in the Bay Area hearing this?

seems to still be going on but not 100% sure. Lot of background noise around here.

Still, anyone else hear it?

I'll check again tonight