Wind Causes Waves in Toilet
New wind records for both the station on AccuWeather's roof (51 mph) and the one at my house (48 mph) were set Friday evening. During this event, I noticed an interesting phenomenon in my toilet water. (I know, too much information). I decided to post a summary and explanation in case any of you other weather enthusiasts encounter this.
As the winds increased from a steady 20 mph to a steady 35 mph with gusts to 48 mph (the highest I've measured at my station since I moved into My New House [JessePedia] this Spring), I noticed that the water in our toilets began to tremor, then started to slosh.I took some video with My New Camera [JessePedia], but unfortunately neither YouTube nor Google Video accepts edited Quicktime videos, so you'll have to download the videos directly using the links below. The links will open in a new window and may take some time to download; they should work in Internet Explorer with the Quicktime plugin.
It reminded me of a video that I saw during a hurricane in which the camera was focused on a toilet bowl during a hurricane. I can't for the life of me remember what video it was -- it may have been one of Jim Leonard's. As I recall, the videographer was either pointing out that the water was being sucked out of the toilet by the hurricane's winds, or that you could hear the roaring winds through the toilet. If you have seen this, email me.
To approach this from a Mythbusters [JessePedia] perspective... If you want to try this at home, you'll need to make sure that 1.) No one in the house is using the water and 2.) You don't have other plumbing systems connected to yours (for example you live in a condo or apartment complex) which might be operating at the time of observation. And you'll need high winds, probably at least 20 mph steady or 40 mph gusts.
Here's an over-simplified illustration using the actual vent pipe on my roof:
I also took some impressive video of the 70-foot oak trees across the street bending in the wind, see below... listen to the audio in the first movie to hear my house making various scary noises as the wind gusts to nearly 50 mph.
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