Tornado ("HISS-SS-SS-SS, HISS-SS-SS-SS") sound

[Kurt Wayne]

Hello, all...

My family and I were blessed to survive the Bentonville, AR tornado of March 12 of this year with very mild damage to our house...sadly, our neighbors a mile east and several miles southwest didn't fare as well, though praise God there was no loss of life.

Anyway, sitting in the bathtub riding out the storm (which from the damage track and what I saw before taking cover was multi-vortex and at least 1/2 mile wide) immediately after the wind subsided I heard sounds that, instead of the usual "freight train / waterfall" noise were hissing noises laced with vibrato: "HISS-SS-SS-SS-sss-sss, HISS-SS-SS-SS-sss-sss" which emanated from just north of our house (where neighbors suffered roof damage and a brick mailbox was demolished). Then, the dead low-pressure calm.

I know this is far from a post-grad meteorology question but...anyone have any idea what that was? Perhaps an not-fully-descended sub-vortice?

The only other such sound I've heard in all the tornado videos I've watched is, I recall, in the now-(in)famous video shot by the Wichita reporter and his photographer in April 26, 2001 as they ducked under an overpass on I-35 and an F-2 twister from the deadly Andover, KS tornado family went right over the bridge they were hiding under...it seems like those noises were being made moments before the twister whirled on top of them.

Thanks in advance to anyone who knows what this sound is/was.

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

Could it have been gas or air evacuating from something damaged/broken from the tornado?

 

[Kurt Wayne]

Could it have been gas or air evacuating from something damaged/broken from the tornado?
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Mike, perhaps, but there were no gas leaks that I knew of north of my house nor anything large enough to be deflated in that manner.

(By contrast, Wal-Mart's David Glass Technology Center, 1/2 mile south of me, sustained significant damage to its roof and indeed had its night personnel evacuated due to a gas leak. The strongest vortice seemed to pass just north of that complex...right before heading for the bathroom I saw pieces of the heavy wooden fence on that building's parking lot spinning about 100 feet in the air.)

BTW, I've always liked those shots you caught of the Hill City, KS tor, sir.

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

Mike, perhaps, but there were no gas leaks that I knew of north of my house nor anything large enough to be deflated in that manner.

(By contrast, Wal-Mart's David Glass Technology Center, 1/2 mile south of me, sustained significant damage to its roof and indeed had its night personnel evacuated due to a gas leak. The strongest vortice seemed to pass just north of that complex...right before heading for the bathroom I saw pieces of the heavy wooden fence on that building's parking lot spinning about 100 feet in the air.)

BTW, I've always liked those shots you caught of the Hill City, KS tor, sir.
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Hmm, guess it's possible it was still the tornado you were hearing then. Yeah the turnkpike tor did sound like it was hissing too. Betting it was the tornado if it was right after the wind let up. Probably aren't many other things than gas to make a hissing noise.

About Hill City, thanks, I just wished I had taken more during that(no idea why I wasn't) and had been more carefull about the focus as several(of the few I took to begin with) were fairly out of focus when viewed full size. Maybe big tornadic storms in May and June will return in 07.

 

[Mike Smith]

Very good question.

The only tornado I have been close enough to really hear was the F3 Lyndon-Lawrence tornado of May 8th, 2003. I could hear the sound of the tornado on two frequencies: The deep rumble (freight train?) and the hiss that sounded somewhat like a waterfall.

 

[Kurt Wayne]

Very good question.

The only tornado I have been close enough to really hear was the F3 Lyndon-Lawrence tornado of May 8th, 2003. I could hear the sound of the tornado on two frequencies: The deep rumble (freight train?) and the hiss that sounded somewhat like a waterfall.
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Thanks, gentlemen.

Weird thing was, this hissing sound didn't even sound like the waterfall. I cannot duplicate (except perhaps with the assistance of a microphone) the "waterfall" sound I've heard on other videos. By contrast, however, I can easily mimic the sound I heard at the very end (of its punishment of my house) of the Bentonville tor this past March. It was almost like a giant was whispering the sounds (and indeed one was, given the size of the circulation, whose range was from about 1/4 mile south of my house to 3-4 blocks north of it).