March 10, 2023 at 11:12 pm

The Day Canadians Could Hear Each Other Talking From Five Kilometers Away

by Trisha Leigh

One of the best things about history is that there are just so many things to know and learn. If you’re not local to some little tidbits they might escape your attention entirely, but our mission here is to rectify that, one story at a time.

Like this one, in which people in Canada were suddenly able to hear each other from over 5 kilometers away.

It started on January 17th, 1947, when the temperatures in the Yukon (northwest Canada) began to drop. The cold snap lasted until February 5th, with the lowest temperature being around -84F on February 3rd.

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It was too cold for pens to function and colder than was measurable by the thermometer at the airport there; weather observer Gordon Toole had to record the number by scratching an extra line onto the thermometer.

People’s breath turned to white powder in the air, tinkling as it did – though being outside would prove uncomfortable (if not fatal) after only a few minutes.

Weirder than freezing skin, though, was the way sound began to travel differently. Even though Toole was unable to see much in front of his face, he could hear a dog parking around 3.7 miles away.

He also reported that he hard ice that “cracked and boomed loudly, like gun fire” in a river 1 mile away.

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Sound moves slower in the cold but it can travel further if you’re near to the ground. When air near the ground is cold and the air above it is warm, sounds are refracted by the warm air toward the surface, then bounces between the ground and the warm air, allowing it to travel further.

Environment Canada’s senior climatologist David Philips spoke about the phenomenon to the National Post.

“A temperature inversion caused sound waves to bend back toward the ground rather than escaping upwards. People at the airport could clearly hear dogs barking in town and townspeople talking as if they were close by instead of 5 kilometers (3 miles) away.”

People also reported that their clouds of frozen breath lingered in the air for minutes at a time.

“It was unique to see a vapour trail several hundred yards long pursuing one as he moved about outside. Becoming lost was of no concern. As an observer walked along the runway, each breath remained as a tiny, motionless mist behind him at head level. These patches of human breath fog remained in the still air for three to four minutes, before fading away. One observer even found such a trail still marking his path when he returned along the same path 15 minutes later.”

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It sounds like if they had managed to get lost, all they would have had to do is whisper.

Someone would have heard them from over a mile away.

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