The Recent Season’s Event & Noise

January 30, 2020

Why was Seasons so noisy?

Temperature inversion – this happens when the sun sets all the cools air sinks, with no sun create any warm air all the cold air is now trapped at the bottom. This happens when it has been a hot day, and the night is much cooler. The surface cools rapidly, trapping a layer of hot air above the cool layer, between the cool layer above the surface of the ground – essentially you have cool air layer then warm air layer then cool air layer. During a normal night, the warm air rises up through the cool air.

Why is this a problem?

Noise and sound is in the form of a wave. This wave gets trapped between the two layers of cold air (in the hot air layer) which allows the noise to be emitted much further than normal. It is more likely for lower frequency sound to get trapped in this layer owing to its long wavelength. Warmer air temperatures near the earth’s surface allow volatile compounds to dissipate into the upper air levels. So the biggest problem with the inversion scenario cold air trapped near earths surface is very stable.

What does this mean?

If a gust of wind comes through its going to push those waves elsewhere. Think smog in a city, BUT with sound the impact is noise being trapped and spread over larger distances.

What can we do?

When you feel the noise levels in your house are too loud open up the back windows (the ones facing away from the noise) as this will help the noise escape your house. Shutting all of the windows means that the low frequency (or bass thump) will be trapped in the house, bouncing around and in some cases being amplified by hard surfaces in the room.

We understand the recent Seasons event at Claremont Showground impacted some Claremont residents. If you have any complaints or questions please call 6263 3123 or email commercial@raswa.org.au.