‘What Is That Sound?’ Howling ‘Atmospheric River’ Winds Make Golden Gate Bridge ‘Sing’

SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX-TV) — The howling gale forces winds, whipped up by a potent atmospheric river, whistled done the railing grates of the Golden Gate Bridge, creating an eerie dependable way for the tempest arsenic it ripped done the San Francisco Bay Area.

The humming sound tin beryllium heard for miles and has been a root of annoyance for San Francisco residents ever since a handrail retrofit, designed to marque the span much aerodynamic connected gusty days, was enactment into spot past year.

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The slants are overmuch narrower than the aged handrails and vibrate successful a beardown wind.

“I couldn’t truly picture the sound,” said Brianne Howell of San Francisco erstwhile she archetypal heard the sound past year. “I deliberation I described it arsenic upwind chimes astatine archetypal and, then, similar erstwhile you stroke into a brew bottle. But then, similar aggregate brew bottles, due to the fact that it’s antithetic tones.”

Is it a hum? A ghostly wail? A Brian Eno-style soundtrack for the world’s astir beauteous bridge? The sound is not casual to describe. Howell had been chasing the root since April. “What is that sound,” she remembers asking herself walking done the Presidio. “I’m benignant of like: americium I the lone 1 proceeding this?”

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Paolo Cosulich-Schwartz with the Golden Gate Bridge District explained that the caller railing makes the span much resilient to truly precocious wind. “The slats connected the caller manus obstruction are overmuch thinner than the aged manus obstruction which means that aerial tin travel much freely crossed the bridge,” Paolo Cosulich-Schwartz said.

The Golden Gate Bridge District says this was to beryllium expected. During design, the territory conducted upwind passageway tests connected a standard exemplary of the span nether precocious winds.

On Sunday, Mother Nature gave the span its ain upwind trial with adjacent hurricane unit winds. The National Weather Service issued a gale informing for the waters disconnected the bridge.

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“Peak gusts person been astir 70 mph connected higher peaks with 40 to 50 mph gusts filtering into little areas,” the upwind work said. “Expect the winds to linger wrong the main rainfall set but chopped backmost earlier the rainfall begins to fto off.”