Moi! I have been living in Kuopio for half a year now. My appartment is right next to the forest and it is usually really quiet and silent.

This morning I noticed that there is some kind of **white noise** coming out from the forest or the surroundings. It is a constant noise that does not stop, and it has nothing to do with traffic or industrials because you can easily differentiate those.

I don’t know if it is just wind, trees or something else that I am not aware of.

Any idea?

Edit: Sound [Soundcloud audio](https://soundcloud.com/jonathan-fernandez-945565845/sound-forestsky-finland?si=8548dc6e124f48bc904e9baa2a772b41&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing)

28 comments

  1. My first thought would be a transformer box, is one anywhere around? I know they have a tendency to hide those in the bush somewhat. Power lines will also emit an audible hum if it’s foggy or humid out, any of those nearby?

    As for nature – the only thing that comes to mind that fits the profile is poplar leaves in the wind, but that’s a bit out of season at the moment.

  2. It’s the trees, talking to you. Congratulations, you’ve been accepted to stay in Finland longer now. We all hear it too, nothing to worry about. Once you notice yourself talking back to them though, please seek help.

  3. Go for a walk and find out? As we don’t even know your exact location, it is very hard to say anything but just guessing.

    Industrial noises can be heard from very far away, especially now when there is not much wind. Sometimes cloud can reflect noise.

    Could be eg somekind of pipe (water, heat, sewer) maintenance.

  4. Is there a motorway nearby?

    I could be that in the summer the noise was blocked by the trees but now as the trees got bare you can hear it more…

  7. Definitely sounds like a highway nearby, I’m guessing trees lost leaves and now you hear the road because they are not insulating the sound. It will get a bit better once there is snow on the ground.

  9. Here’s an idea: today, 3 November, there a geomagnetic storm going on, i.e. you might see aurora borealis if it weren’t daytime.

    I have heard a similar white noise at night when an auroral display was going on. Initially, I thought it was the wind in the forest, but the night was calm, and the sound did not quite sound like traffic noise from a distant motorway. Auroral sound is a real thing.

    Geomagnetic storms tend to dissipate fairly quickly, over 24 hours or so, so if you do not hear the noise again, that might be the cause.

    Just a thought.

    [https://www.sciencealert.com/we-can-hear-the-sound-of-aurora-even-when-it-can-t-be-seen](https://www.sciencealert.com/we-can-hear-the-sound-of-aurora-even-when-it-can-t-be-seen)

  10. Most likely highway, could be of course from some factory as well. In my previous job one machine was causing noise and the clouds(?) in the sky deflected the sound. I know it sounds crazy but the sound was deflected to a certain apartment building’s yard which was otherwise geographically “sound protected” from the factory by hills / trees and other buildings. I mean there was no clear path to that location and there were other buildings between the factory and this specific building and they had no issues with the sound.

  11. Sounds like motorway. Leafs have dropped so forest don’t block its sound anymore.

  12. some is LARPing an autobahn in the nearby forest. It’s the finnish equivalent of crop circles. They want UFO’s to think of them as viable landing strips and so they make elaborate sound installations and dress in gray overalls in the forests.

  13. Sounds a lot like traffic to me. In Helsinki, you might hear it all the time when outdoors during the day.

  14. Wind.

    It probably differs from your average summer breeze because all the leaf carrying trees have now mostly lost their leaves and the wind can move more freely in the tops.

    I’ve listened to that “noise” for decades while sitting in a otherwise quiet forest, waiting for prey, with no traffic near for 5+ kilometers.

  15. Thats the Kuopio forest Mörkö. Its harmless so you need not worry, but i’d carry apiece of reissumies in your pocket for distraction. Just to be sure.

  18. I can hear the aircon system of a factory from a kilometer away at night when it’s quiet enough now that the leaves are gone. Could be something like that.

    Could also be Hattifatteners.. They look for new parasite hosts to lay their eggs in in the fall. (omg yes I’m kidding)

  19. Sounds like fast moving traffic to me, maybe the wind just happens to blow from a weird direction and carries the sound + no more leafs on trees to block it.

  22. Shhh!! 🤫🤫 We’re not supposed to talk about the Finnish Väinämöinen -class nuclear weapons in here!! 😳😳

  23. That’s tire noise, Which is the “loudest” noise that travelling car makes from any longer distance.

    Cooler air, lack of sound damping from leaves in the trees of the forest, and now people changing to tires with rougher thread pattern, or studded tires as winter is coming.

    Possibly slightly amplified by the wind in the trees. also with direction of wind might carry the sound a bit further.

    But what you are hearing is highway / larger main road.

  24. It’s wind blowing through the trees. It actually never stops, you can hear it when it is otherwise quiet. I learned that in the army when we were camping in the woods for a few days. It sounds soothing at first but eventually gets on your nerves.

  28. Trees have droppes their leaves and don’t deaden the sounds anymore. Sound will carry much longer in late fall, winter and spring.

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