# Why do things sound different in extremely cold weather? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 10, 2025, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-things-sound-different-in-extremely-cold-weather/1014130 "2025-02-10T13:13:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2025, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-things-sound-different-in-extremely-cold-weather/1014130/1 "2025-02-10T13:13:49Z")
It’s been a while since I was outdoors at temperatures well below zero (like -10F, -20F). But my recollection was that things sounded “different” on those occasions, as if there were an exceptional level of clarity. In a parking lot a half-mile laterally from a runway approach path, jets on final approach sounded really crisp and clear, without particularly being louder than normal. The same could be said for cars just a hundred feet away in the same parking lot, or moving on the nearby road. Not really louder than usual, just more clarity. Am I misremembering? Was I imagining at the time? Or is there really something about very cold ambient temps that affects acoustics? ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2025, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-things-sound-different-in-extremely-cold-weather/1014130/2 "2025-02-10T13:48:05Z")
Mostly because cold air is more dense than warm air, so sound travels more efficiently through the colder air. Also, in the winter you often have colder air near the surface with slightly warmer air above it (since cold air sinks). Because the sound waves travel faster through the more dense colder air, the sound gets naturally refracted back towards the ground when it hits the boundary layer between the cold and warm air. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2025, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-things-sound-different-in-extremely-cold-weather/1014130/3 "2025-02-10T14:36:56Z")
This is one of he many questions addressed in Jearl Walker’s wonderful book **The Flying Circus of Physics**. In the edition _with answers_ it’s item 1.28 (the numbering in the original edition and the online edition is different). You can find it here: > **[Walker The flying circus of physics with answers (wiley, 1977)](https://www.slideshare.net/rulerimrankhan/walker-the-flying-circus-of-physics-with-answers-wiley-1977)** > > Walker The flying circus of physics with answers (wiley, 1977) - Download as a PDF or view online for free ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2025, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-things-sound-different-in-extremely-cold-weather/1014130/4 "2025-02-10T15:07:43Z")
Cold air also carries very little moisture, and so in addition to being more dense it also provides less damping of high frequency acoustic signals, so sound carries further without being muffled even compared with transmission in warmer air with low relative humidity. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_wind_of_my_soul)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2025, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-things-sound-different-in-extremely-cold-weather/1014130/5 "2025-02-10T15:13:09Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > Also, in the winter you often have colder air near the surface with slightly warmer air above it (since cold air sinks). Because the sound waves travel faster through the more dense colder air, the sound gets naturally refracted back towards the ground when it hits the boundary layer between the cold and warm air. Don’t you always have colder air near the surface with slightly warmer air above it, regardless of the time of year? ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2025, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-things-sound-different-in-extremely-cold-weather/1014130/6 "2025-02-10T15:38:04Z")
For me, it’s after a snow that sounds different. Sounds carry a lot farther. Maybe the OP is focusing on the temp rather than the snow??? ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2025, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-things-sound-different-in-extremely-cold-weather/1014130/7 "2025-02-11T11:10:27Z")
Also snow will be more ‘squeaky’ when you walk on it. I think this is due to it retaining its very crystalline angular shape, and not melted at all (that’s a guess though). You can tell how cold it is by the way the snow sounds. ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2025, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-things-sound-different-in-extremely-cold-weather/1014130/8 "2025-02-11T19:33:39Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > For me, it’s after a snow that sounds different. Sounds carry a lot farther. I find it’s the quiet stillness after or during some snowfall that’s remarkable. Sounds that we do hear are more easily identified since everything stands out against the snow and leafless branches. The chirp of a bird, a rustle of dry reeds, the soft hopping sound of bunnies. Of course, all it takes is a little breeze to make you &$%@&ing sorry you were born. ---
**Author:** ![velomont](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/8491ac/32.png) [@velomont](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/velomont)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2025, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-things-sound-different-in-extremely-cold-weather/1014130/9 "2025-02-11T21:23:02Z")
Way back in the day (1970s) I remember a friend and I discussing this one bloody cold winter day in Ottawa when, from Sir Robert Borden High School, we could hear aircraft, faintly but extremely clearly, taxiing at the airport, a distance of 4.5 miles. In our 16 or 17 year old scientific minds we concluded that that was because air molecules were closer together in the cold (yes, we were nerds 😄). It was pretty cool (no pun intended). ---
**Author:** ![hibernicus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hibernicus/32/2802_2.png) [@hibernicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hibernicus)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2025, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-things-sound-different-in-extremely-cold-weather/1014130/10 "2025-02-16T00:04:21Z")
> [@The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](#): > > Don’t you always have colder air near the surface with slightly warmer air above it, regardless of the time of year? No, when there is a colder layer under a warmer layer, it’s called an inversion, by contrast with the “normal” condition where temperature decreases with increasing height above ground. What may be counter-intuitive is that the air is heated from below and not from above; the air is largely transparent to solar radiation.