Was this ‘the hum’? Or what else was this noise in London last night?

[UAintMyMuvva]

Not strictly an AIBU but didn’t know where else to post. I’m sorry if this is long, but I want to explain this clearly.

I live in a north London suburb - quiet residential street about 5 mins from a small high street and 10 mins from the North Circular Road.

Woke up about 4am thinking I heard a plane going overhead. Not unusual in normal times as we live under a flight path, but for the last few weeks I’ve not heard any planes, so it seemed strange. Thought maybe a military plane or something?

Lay awake listening for about 20 mins and it sounded like a plane circling, but not directly overhead, maybe somewhere in the distance. Then started to think I’d been mistaken, as the noise sounded more like the rumbling of a busy motorway or maybe a train in the distance. It was a humming, buzzing, rumbling sound.

Eventually got up and opened my windows to look/listen out. Street was dead. Sky was clear. The noise was louder and seemed to be coming from ‘out there’ somewhere in the city, not actually overhead, and wasn’t really coming from any clear direction - just all around. It wasn’t coming from the high street (this has been silent at night since lockdown, but I recognise the sound of the odd car from such a close distance, and this wasn’t it).

The noise was also getting louder and then quietening again and so on, but not in any particularly rhythmic way (like how a circling helicopter would sound).

Woke DH up and asked if he could hear it. He could. Decided to check the TFL jam cams online to see if there were any military trucks or delivery trucks on any of the main roads nearby, including the North Circ. Nothing. The roads were completely dead on all the cams in north London (bar the odd ambulance, which was eerie).

Started googling what it could be and the thing that kept coming up was The Hum, an unexplained humming/rumbling sound that is probably best known in the UK for being noticed in Bristol (I’d never actually heard of it before).

Anyway, the noise was still going at about 6am when I fell asleep. Woke again at 8am and it had gone, just silence and birdsong on my street.

I know nobody can give me a definitive answer, but was this ‘the hum’, do you think? What else could it have been? It freaked me out quite badly as it just so strange and persistent and a bit ominous in these coronavirus times!

Probably the government of China spreading coronavirus over our heads with alien technology, or our government spreading coronavirus with 5G 😂😀😂

Oh that's so weird. Hoping you get an answer!

That's what the air ambulance sounds like round our way. It could also have been trucks moving equipment.

Don't worry OP, it was just the rustling of your tin foil cap.

I was also awake around that time & thought I could hear a plane, but I’m in the north east 🧐

It sounds like flaring. Do you have any big industry relatively near to you? The sound can travel quite a distance and it is ominous if you have not heard it before. It does sound like a plane going over or heavy traffic but it persists for hours.

I’m not a conspiracy theorist at all!

And my first thought was some sort of convoy of military or delivery trucks, but it went on for so long and seemed to be getting closer and then further away and closer etc. It was so bloody weird! And the fact DH could hear it made me at least know I wasn’t going mad.

@lizzzyyliveson what is flaring?

Probably a generator or something.

I’ve just googled flaring and we do have a waste plant about 15-20mins away. Could it be that I wonder?

I’m in N12 and we could hear something last night. Checked flight radar and no planes

I’m in N12 too!

Was there resurfacing going on anywhere? I’ve seen thirty odd lorries ready to resurface the m25 at midnight a few times. Feels like I’m in the middle of a weird film set v noisy.

I would say chopper. Engines may differ in their sound according to the 'model' (don't know the right word) of helipcopter, how high it's flying and how near/far to you. Remember that sounds travels an awful lot more at night and particularly so now as there's so little everyday noise about such as traffic on the roads coming back late from parties etc.

It was probably a calibration aircraft.

Hmmm do I know you? Have you been here for a while....
If we both heard it then must be something!

The police helicopters sound like that if they are almost out of hearing distance.

Does your DH not mind you waking him up in the night, and Googling etc?

Don’t think it was resurfacing as I checked literally all of the jam cams on main roads in north london, right up to central london and the roads were dead.

It really didn’t sound like a chopper. We have the odd military chopper and the odd police chopper going overhead sometimes and it wasn’t that sound at all.

If you are in the same London suburb as me, it is more likely to be a Police helicopter circling, not close, obviously, but they do go on for about 20 minutes as a minimum I have noticed.

I also hear what sounds like a hum sometimes, put it down to the wind direction and traffic passing on the motorway/main road.

@DuaneDibbley I’m a frequent name changer...but it’s possible we bump in to each other on the high street .

@YinMnBlue DH didn’t mind at all. He found it fascinating/spooky, too.

@WhenItIsOver it did sound like wind/a storm at some points, but the air outside was completely still and quite warm.

Sometimes we can hear the M25 here when it’s quiet, but thats not a hum, more of a gentle whooshing.
Have you ever had an In the night garden themed name?

@DuaneDibley No!

Trains can sound like that if there’s no other noise that would normally drown out the track and engine sounds and it travels quite a long way.

We have a small sewage works up the valley from our village. When the wind is in the right direction you can hear a constant hum. Incredibly annoying when the weather is warm (now) and the windows are open over night. It’s the sewage works for the village and surrounding area so we put up with it so we can flush our toilets 😁 we're lucky there’s only a smell within a few meters around the fence