A right humdinger of a mystery

It comes in the dead of night most often, an incessant creeping, groping, invasion of your auditory privacy. It is caustic, relentless and for some, morose. It is the Omagh Hum.

Thanks be to God, I’ve never actually heard the Omagh Hum but I imagine it’s all of those things and worse. Since it was first reported a little over a month ago, the Hum is so discussed and sissected, it has supplanted the weather as the go-to topic for small talk across the town.

“What about that hum, hi?”

“Did you hear it?”

“I know a man lives on the Tamlaght Road and his aul head’s fair astray.”

“Paddy?”

“Aye, he towl me it’s making him wish he was deaf.”

“The poor aul bugger. He might niver be right after this.”

Then there are people who have claimed to hear it but who patently haven’t. Either that, or they’re not the full shilling.

“Did you hear that new hum, hi?”

“I did a-course. Sure, it was me heerd it first.”

“What do you think it is?

“I hink it’s suhan to do with them wee yella boys, the Minions.”

The irrefutable fact however, is that the hum exists and what is more, it is not a phenomenon unique to Omagh.

Apparently, The Hum, as it is known, has been reported all over the world from the United States to Australia and back again and the more you look into the matter, the more you realise places are hearing ‘humthing’.

Annecdotes dating back to the ‘70s talk about people detecting a strange but unmistakable whirring hum.

BOURNEMOUTH

I have to be honest: Until the Omagh Hum struck up its discordant rumbling, I had no idea – for example – that a whopping four per-cent of people around the world are believed to hear this low pitched noise. But it’s true.

Enter Chris House from Bournemouth…

Chris contacted us this week to give us his version of a humdinger story, although in his case, it’s not as facetious as I’ve been making out.

“Unless you have experienced LFN (low frequency noise) you have absolutely no idea of the living hell,” Chris remarked.

“I’ve lived on Capstone Road and since February 2019. I have been experiencing a very low frequency humming noise in my home.

“Seven people can hear the humming in my home, including the noise consultant I have engaged, albeit (it’s) very faint to him, although that day the hum was at a low. Electromagnetic, coils, rotary motor, or refrigeration was the opinion of the consultant.”

He continued, “I am full time carer for my elderly Mum and in the early hours of July 3 this year she encountered the wrath of the hum for the very first time, causing her great distress. Not a week has gone by since without her being seriously affected by the hum. For me, it is nearing three years. 24/7, a good night’s sleep is impossible, as too is reading and concentrating on the simplest of tasks. Added to that there is the stress, anxiety, and fear of when it will next ramp up. At times it can even be heard above the TV.”

Bad times in Chris’s world – especially since he’s out £3,000 on that consultant and his local council is doing a Pontius Pilot.

“Their attitude, to us, is disgusting with the insinuation that I am incapable of differentiating between traffic noise (and the hum), a damn insult,” he added. Bad times.

Chris also referred us to the ‘Holmview Hum,’ another mysterious sound which has plagued the residents of a West Yorkshire village for over two years and which cannot be explained.

Last year, after locals complained that the noise was becoming torturous, Calderdale Council launched an investigation. However, whilst said it had left “no stone unturned” it could not “evidence a statutory noise nuisance.” Bad times in Holmview.

DERBY

In a letter to the Guardian last week, Paul Birchall from Derby had further revelations.

“It is not only in Omagh that a hum is to be heard…” he wrote. “In Derby, I have been aware of a low-frequency hum for some years. It is much more noticeable at night and in winter, but only disturbing when lying in bed – probably because it could be a ground-transmitted vibration, which at its worst is on the boundary between hearing and feeling on the eardrum.”

EXPLANATIONS

But what’s causing all this humming? The short answer is: Nobody knows. Conversely and of course, theories abound.

The Taos Hum (New Mexico), which was the focus of a study in the 1990s went unexplained, as did the Auckland Hum in New Zealand in 2006.

Theories as to the cause of the sound vary from tinnitus to the Jet Stream to heat pumps. Then there’s ‘spontaneous otoacoustic emissions’ (SOAE). This is a phenomenon whereby human ears generate their own noises – presumably at night when there’s nothing else for them to hear. Could the various hums across the world be caused by rebel ears? Probably not.

Probably my favourite theory is that the hums are caused by fish. That’s right, fish.

One of the many possible causes of the West Seattle Hum considered was that it was related to the Midshipman Fish, also known as a Toadfish. A previous hum in Sausalito, California, also on the west coast of the United States, was determined to be the mating call of the male Midshipman. Eventually, though, a University of Washington researcher determined that it would be impossible for any resonating hum from a fish to be transmitted very far inland. And last I checked, there wasn’t an aquarium on the Tamlaght Road exclusively stocked with Midshipman.

All hope however, is not lost. Another hum which was belatedly explained was the Windsor Hum.

For years – decades even – Canadians living in Windsor – close to the US border – could hear another low frequency whirring. On one occasion in 2012 some 22,000 reports were made to the authorities. Then, in 2020, they welcomed the sweet sound of silence.

Apparently (or so the internet tells me), a steel mill operated by the US shut down its blast furnaces in the April of 2020 and low and behold, the hum… disappeared.

As to the Omagh Hum, my money’s on the wee yella boys.