VERY loud rumbling tonight in PacificNorthWest..anyone else hear it? 2/8/12

Hey there Westcoast...... I haven't been posting very much lately but have been following your posts, thanks for the great info!!
I have moved from Lyman into Sedro Woolley now, very close to the train tracks that run up the Hwy 9 corridor. We hear trains often and due to their slow speed they rumble for a bit.
Last night I must have fallen asleep before 10 pm, but when I told my boyfriend about your post, he said he heard the train around 10 pm, only it seemed much louder than usual. This doesn't seem like the typical time we hear trains, usually it is around 4-5 am.
I am going to see if I can find a train schedule somewhere online, but now I am suspecting he heard what so many others heard.
Let's bear in mind also that it was a full moon last night. We should start to try to track it the sounds correspond in any way to moon phase.
I will let you know if I can find anything on train schedules.....

Im near Issaquah and didn't hear anything. I suppose that's pretty far away. I normally don't take much stock in sky sounds but I find you trustworthy and believe you heard something. I know EXACTLY he sound you are speaking of before an EQ hits. That would be frightening.

Okay all it is happening again RIGHT NOW. Has been going on for about 10 minutes.

I got seven minutes recording....am going to download it now. Hopefully it picked it up. Not as loud as last night.

reply to post by westcoast


(posting to help pin point the area.)
I went outside and nothing unusual tonight in south Tacoma. We have dense fog so that might be muffling sounds.
Also there were cats outside behaving normally and frogs were croaking.

reply to post by westcoast


wc, I can confirm that right now I am picking up something similar to what I told you about before, except this time it is at station TA.A04D (not too far from you), and is two continual "hums"- one at 12 Hz or so and one at 16 Hz or so.

Edit: let me go get the PBO stations up, and see what I get there...bbiam


Confirmed at B009, B010 and B011, although I think those are part of the same station. But still, fact that showing on two different networks means SOMETHING is going on. What, I don't know.


Also, got something weird going on at B943. Looking like small icequakes, not sure. But pull PBO B943 EHZ up, and you should see them.

Also for GEE users: Developer is now aware of some issues with GEE, and we are working on it. So have patience, I am not just going to leave you all in the dust with no monitoring at all.


WOAH. Did that just get louder, wc? Cause now I am getting a new band at about 7.5 Hz, and the energy seems to be increasing...


Well if it's jet tests, especially high powered, that would do it. But what are microquakes going on at B943?

Really curious about this one. Glad to see TrueAmerican watching the thread. We might get some answers. West coast post the sound files as soon as you are able please....

Man I sure feel for you westcoast/ If I recall correctly, you were the first person that I recall talking about these rumbling sounds back in 2010. Are these sounding the same but louder now as the recordings you got back then? Are you animals freaking tonight as well?

I wonder what would happen if you tried to take video and just set the recorder on the ground to see if it would capture a shake of some sort from the vibration? Just a thought Go get em tiger...

I hope Stealthy Kat comes around to this post, she had caught some good recordings herself from Louisiana or that neck of the woods, Wonder if it will sound the same to her.

Definitely going to stay tuned tonight.

Alright. I caught it on tape....got some good audio. It is processing.

I jumped on the computer right away and told my friends to go outside. SEVERAL checked in from all around as to hearing it. One of them was listening to the scanner and the police were talking about it. Then, they reported that they called out to NAS (Naval Air Station at Whidbey Island) and they stated they were doing some sort of high powered jet testing and would be done soon. It stopped shortly after.

I will let you all be the judge. I am willing to accept that it is definitely possible. It seems odd that it would be heard so far away, so loud. People ten miles east of me were still hearing it loud and clear. Maybe the atmosphere and wind/etc. has an affect on that.

Last night it was much louder, but the same sound. This is also the same sound I have heard in the past but fainter.

SO. Have I been hearing some sort of 'high powered jet testing' from afar all along? I'll let you be the judge. Video to follow in a few minutes.

I have to ask. Why would they test jets this time of night? That strikes me just a little odd

Here it is. It's long. For the best part, skip ahead to 5:20. You can hear it best with earphones. For the die hards that want to listen to the whole eight minutes, I start inside at the window and then walk out. After a few minutes I realized I should stand in between my cars to block the steady wind. That is when it picks it up the best.

So this could very well just be the jets doing their thing. Let me know what you think!

reply to post by westcoast


Yep. Jet tests. The high frequencies are getting attenuated because of the distance, and what makes it through to you is the low end.

Problem solved.

I've been on many AF installations and the video doesn't sound like a jet engine. However I have never heard one with engines running as far away as you are. The video did remind me of the sound of an engine when you are inside a plane, climbing to altitude.

Did it come from the direction of Whidbey? Is it foggy or cloudy like in Tacoma?

One thing you can do is contact the NAS public Affairs office. There web site even has a noise complaint number.Whidbey PA site

When I was active AF, the PA office had to respond to each phone call/e-mail no matter how crazy. We also put out press releases, especially if enough calls were made. Also, I am searching for any press releases previously put out about late night base exercises or engine testing. They are supposed to release something to the public if something may disturb or frighten civilians.

Edit: So far nothing, not even in local papers. If they did test these past two nights, maybe they thought the sound wouldn't carry.

reply to post by collietta


GREAT info. I'll look into that. It could be the general direction. Hard to say, because it was so loud and while it seemed to come from the West, I couldn;t say for sure exactly where south. So it's possible it was that direction, but I don't know for sure.

Seems an odd time of night for that sort of thing and that it would be so loud. One of my friends is a good ten miles further east than me....so that would be a good hours drive to the base. It isn't foggy at all, just breezy and blowing clouds.

reply to post by westcoast


Very odd time of night for jet noise, unless they are getting ready to deploy, or they need night sortie hours. It's also possible that a base exercise could be going on right now. I don't know for sure though, nothing mentioned in the base newspaper.
I know the navy does things differently, but the AF would put out press releases to local news agencies if a base exercise was going on. We didn't want noise complaints from the jets or people calling us panicky because they heard the alarm red siren.
I don't know how far jet noise can travel, especially over water, because I've never heard it from far away, however when Fort Lewis fires there canon, we can hear it in South Tacoma. (They put out a press release long ago that's why we know what it is).
I do know that I live about 7 miles to the main base gate of McChord. Looking at a map I can see that we're probably 4 miles away from the flightline, if we drove straight. I've never heard any engine idling on the flightline, not even when their are fighter jets.
I can definitely hear them when they fly over.

reply to post by westcoast


Sorry typing on phone. I dont know the area, but is there a town or residentual area a lot closer to the base? If so, it would have had to been very loud for them. Could always ask at a gas station or somthing simular . I sure wouldnt want that noise outside my window at that time of night

reply to post by collietta


It's about an hours drive for me to get to the base. Around 30 miles as the crow flies. hard to believe we could hear it. Also, if that were the case, wouldn't I be hearing that a lot more? Only time I hear jets is when they fly over at crusiing altitude.

I dunno....not convinced.

I live in a city in North Alabama famous for it's history with NASA and the space program. I also live close to the "arsenal" which tests rocket engines on a regular basis. I have lived here for 3 years, and not once have I heard a rocket engine test at night. Might want to contact Whidbey directly and verify for yourself...

reply to post by Domo1


Thats funny. Issy huh?

Top of cougar mt here. I heard a rumbling here about 10 min after midnight. The OP says 10PM in SW.

reply to post by westcoast


WC.....that is EXACTLY like the sounds I recorded sounded in person. Your recording is much better than mine. The only difference is that what I heard did not ebb and flow, it was pretty much constant, but the sound is very close to what I heard! Also, once it lasted for 45 minutes and the sound was constant, never faded like a jet flying by would. Sorry if I missed it, but how long did you hear this for?

reply to post by StealthyKat


I was in an inner room in the house at first...thought I felt a vibration when my husband came and got me. I grabbed my recorder and started recording. The video lasts over eight minutes and it lasted a good 15 minutes or so after, so I would say close to half an hour.

I gotta go to work...but I am not so sure about the jet answer. I am going to look into that further. Now that I have stirred this up on facebook, I have several friends talking about it. So glad I am not the only one now.