We’ve all heard the howling wind that sometimes sounds human. What causes this?
It’s the human brain’s specialisation in detecting human sounds wherever it can. Communication is important to most animals and the human brain makes every attempt to match any sound that could be a voice in order to avoid missing important information.
It’s the audio equivalent of being able to ‘see’ faces in things like cloud patters and burning embers.
What gpw said, I get this all the time, and not just with the wind.
if you listen closely your refrigerator might talk to you.
zuuuuuuuuuuul
I for one have NOT heard wind sounding human. Have others really heard this?
More generally, the brain is so adept as detecting patterns in general, it finds them where they ain’t.
(BTW the wind itself isn’t making the sound, it’s the vibrating of air as it rushes past various objects, or even your own ears.) When wind is making sound that doesn’t sound like a howling voice, you probably don’t even notice it. So one aspect of this is the only time you notice wind sound is if it happens to resemble a voice.
All the time. I do a lot of solo hiking, and the wind, streams, leaves, all sort of sound like human voices. Your brain is busy trying to detect important stuff so it “makes sense” of the noise by turning it into something that just barely sounds like human voices.
I’ve only noticed it very occasionally when the wind has been strong and I’ve heard it through a window. Or sometimes when in a wooded area.
It needs to be making a particular sort of sound.
Another very good place to notice a similar effect is in passenger jets. The combination of the hissing of the aircon and roar of the engines make it very easy to hear a low background murmuring of human voices even when you can look up and see everyone asleep!
Yes. This is particularly noticeable amongst certain on line poker players who ascribe their less than stellar performance to the deal being rigged. They often claim to be able to see patterns in the cards but, strangely, they can never make any money out of this apparently useful ability. 
What they said; the term used is Pareidolia
Ah, you misunderstand. The deal will only be rigged after the player makes his play. Then he’ll be able to say “I knew X card would come up and screw me!”
As for the OP question - wind blows over, well, just about every object and surface that’s outside. So it’s hardly surprising that some of those objects will vibrate at a frequency that happens to be in the range of human voices. Add in the brain’s pattern recognition, as mentioned above, and yoooooouuuu caaaannn seeeeeee wwwwwhhhhyyyyyyy.
Wooooooooaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh.
Duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuude.
Well, you’re not the only one who has not experienced this. I have no experience with this phenomenon, either.
Knock it off, and help me put away these marshmallows.
I hear voices telling me to stay home and clean the guns. Good to know its only the wind.
Did the wind say its name was Mariah?
Restless spirits.
Did it say ‘Mary?’
They were just a breezes and very faint but I think they all said: “Louise”.
I should clarify, I only get this with sounds on the edge of hearing (usually because there is some other noise mostly masking it). Until I can identify the sound, things like the wind or traffic noise can sound like someone talking.