The Hum is a constant and annoying low-frequency sound, such as a hum, rumble, or drone, that can be heard by many people, but not everyone, in certain areas. People have reported the Hum in many countries, including Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Sometimes, the Hum is named after the place where it is most widely noticed, such as the "Taos Hum" in New Mexico and the "Windsor Hum" in Ontario.

The Hum is not a single event. It has been linked to different causes, such as machines or equipment from factories and other industrial areas. It has also been connected to conditions like tinnitus or other hearing-related issues in some cases.

Description

A 1973 report mentions a university study that looked at 50 people who complained about hearing a "low throbbing background noise" that others could not hear. This sound, most common between 30 and 40 Hz, was only heard during cool weather with a light breeze and often early in the morning. The noise was usually limited to an area about 10 kilometers (6 miles) wide. For some who can hear it, the sound, called "The Hum," can be troubling. It has been linked to at least three suicides in the United Kingdom.

A study of the Taos Hum in the early 1990s in Taos, New Mexico, found that about 2% of people could hear it. Each person who heard it reported hearing a different frequency between 32 and 80 Hz, with changes in sound from 0.5 to 2 Hz. Similar findings were reported in an earlier British study. Some people who hear the hum can move away from it. One person who heard the Taos Hum said the sound could be heard up to 30 miles (48 kilometers) away. About the same number of men and women reported hearing it. Age appears to matter, with people in their middle years more likely to hear it.

In 2006, Tom Moir, then from Massey University in Auckland, New Zealand, recorded sounds that seemed to match the Auckland Hum. Earlier research using simulated sounds suggested the hum was around 56 Hz.

In late 2011, people in Windsor, Ontario, began reporting a low, continuous vibration that sometimes became loud enough to be annoying. One evening in 2012, 22,000 reports were made to officials. Officials believed the sound came from Zug Island, a heavily industrial area on the Detroit River. Canadian officials asked U.S. authorities for help, but access to the island was blocked. A steel mill owned by U.S. Steel was a possible cause, but officials said no new equipment had been added around the time the noise started. When the blast furnaces were turned off in April 2020, the noise stopped.

In 2021, people in Frankfurt and Darmstadt, Germany, reported hearing hums. A year later, sources of the hum in Darmstadt were found: two broken air conditioners, a faulty heat pump, and three issues with noise protection on energy plants.

In 2022, hums were reported in St. Louis County, Missouri, and nearby areas.

In 2023, a hum was reported in Omagh, Northern Ireland.

In November 2025, people in Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada, reported hearing a low, mechanical humming that one resident described as "repetitive and random." Yukon Energy, which used diesel generators because there was less hydropower than usual, said it was "unlikely" the generators’ sound could reach distant neighborhoods.

Possible explanations

Steve Kohlhase, an engineer who works with industrial facilities, spent $30,000 on legal fees and equipment for his own investigation into a low-frequency hum. A 2019 documentary film called Doom Vibrations, made by Garret Harkawiks, followed Kohlhase’s ten-year effort to find the cause of the noise and explain his theory. In every case he studied, he said the locations were near high-pressure gas pipelines or very close to them.

In 2009, David Baguley, the head of audiology at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, said that in about one-third of cases, people’s problems with the hum were linked to real-world causes, such as industrial machinery or fans. In the other two-thirds of cases, he said the cause was unclear. Baguley noted that many people believe the hum is not real because it is hard to hear, but he pointed out that the large number of people who report hearing it suggests something is happening. He also thought that some people’s hearing may have become too sensitive.

Although a mechanical source seems likely, since the hum is often described as sounding like a diesel engine, most reported hums have not been linked to a specific machine.

In Kokomo, Indiana, a city with heavy industry, the hum was thought to come from two sources. One was a 36 Hz tone from a cooling tower at a local factory, and the other was a 10 Hz tone from an air compressor at another plant. After these devices were fixed, reports of the hum continued.

Three hums have been connected to mechanical sources. In West Seattle, the hum was traced to a vacuum pump used by CalPortland to unload cargo from ships. After replacing the machine’s silencers, the hum stopped. In Wellington, the hum was linked to a diesel generator on a visiting ship. In Windsor, Ontario, a 35 Hz hum was thought to come from a steelworks near Detroit. Reports of the noise stopped after the U.S. Steel plant there closed in April 2020.

In Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, a hum was suspected to come from a power company’s substation nearly two miles from the home of a couple who first reported it. The substation has the state’s largest transformer. The couple sued the power company, saying the hum disrupted their lives. They claimed the noise was louder inside their home because their house vibrated in response to a 60 Hz hum. They reported the hum reached up to 64.1 dB in their home.

Some researchers think the hum might be caused by very low or extremely low frequency radio waves used by the military’s TACAMO system, which helps aircraft communicate with submarines. David Deming said the difficulty in finding the source might be because the waves come from moving aircraft, but he noted no reports of the hum near the Navy’s stationary broadcast stations in Maine and Washington.

Deming also said the hum often stops when local news covers it, which he thinks might mean the source is human-made.

Some doctors suggest tinnitus, a condition where people hear sounds without an external source, as a possible explanation for the hum. Tinnitus is created inside the body by the hearing and nervous systems.

While some think the hum might be a type of low-frequency tinnitus, like the venous hum, others say it is louder inside homes than outside. Some people hear it only at home, while others hear it everywhere. Some report it gets worse when homes are soundproofed, which reduces other noises and makes the hum more noticeable.

Long-term use of ibuprofen is linked to an increased risk of hearing damage, which some people think might be related to the hum.

Human ears naturally make sounds called spontaneous otoacoustic emissions (SOAE). Studies show that 38 to 60 percent of adults with normal hearing have these sounds, though most are unaware of them. People who hear them usually notice faint hissing, buzzing, or ringing, especially in complete silence. Researchers who studied the Taos Hum considered SOAE as a possible cause.

In 1973, Philip Dickinson suggested that a 30- to 40-Hz hum might be caused by the jet stream pushing against slower-moving air and being amplified by power line posts or rooms with matching resonant frequencies. Geoff Leventhall of the Chelsea College Acoustics Group called this idea “absolute nonsense.”

One possible cause of the West Seattle Hum was the midshipman fish, a type of toadfish. A similar hum in Sausalito, California, was traced to the mating call of these fish, which vibrated through houseboat hulls. However, researchers in West Seattle said it was unlikely for such a hum to travel far inland.

In Hythe, Hampshire, the Scottish Association for Marine Science suggested that a similar “sonic” fish might cause the nocturnal humming. However, the council said this was unlikely because such fish are not common in UK coastal waters. As of February 2014, the source of the Hythe hum had not been found, but the sound had been recorded.

Treatment

At a laboratory that studies sound at the University of Salford, David Baguley researched ways to reduce stress caused by a constant low hum. His work used psychology and relaxation methods to help people feel less bothered by the noise, which could eventually lead to quieter environments or the noise being removed entirely.

Geoff Leventhall, an expert in noise and vibration, has proposed that a type of therapy called cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) might help people who are affected by noise. He explained, "It depends on whether a person feels tense when they hear the noise or remains calm. Studies showed that CBT helped people by helping them see the noise in a different way."

In popular culture

The Taos Hum has appeared on the TV show Unsolved Mysteries and in LiveScience's list of "Top Ten Unexplained Phenomena," where it ranked tenth. BBC Radio 4 explored the Hum in their comedy program Punt PI. In October 2022, the Norwegian state broadcaster NRK discussed the Hum in its podcast Oppdatert.

In a 1998 episode of The X-Files titled "Drive," Agent Mulder suggested that extremely low frequency (ELF) radio waves "may be behind the so-called Taos Hum."

In a 2018 episode of the police drama Criminal Minds (Season 13, Episode 21), the main antagonist committed violent acts due to mania caused by the Taos Hum. The story editors called the episode "an X-Files feel."

Jordan Tannahill's 2021 novel The Listeners describes people tormented by a constant humming noise they can hear. The book inspired an opera with the same name, which premiered in 2022. A BBC series based on the book aired in 2024.

In a 2022 episode of the animated series American Dad! titled "Echoes," Avery Bullock (voiced by Patrick Stewart) talks about a mysterious background hum that several characters report hearing.

The Windsor Hum is the subject of the song "The Hum" by Canadian musician Dan Griffin and the short documentary film Zug Island by Nicolas Lachapelle.

The Windsor Hum is also the focus of a song by the Detroit band Protomartyr, which appears on their 2017 album Relatives in Descent.

The Hum is a theme in metalcore band Converge's 2026 album Hum of Hurt, imagined as a physical form of human suffering. Vocalist Jacob Bannon suggests, "What if the Hum is the result of all the pain in the world creating a sound that can be heard across the universe? Something noticeable to others operating on a similar frequency."