SeeCalifornia.com

Normally around 9:40 p.m. you can hear the fireworks exploding in the skies over Anaheim at Disneyland theme park. The noise can actually be heard 15-25 miles away as parents put their kids to bed in surrounding cities. That’s how loud it is.

It’s just one of the dozens of sounds of noise pollution missing or minimized during the coronavirus lock-down of businesses, schools and even theme parks. Another noticeable sound of silence–the dozens of low flying jets flying overhead all day and seemingly all night.

Their roar and thunder is so loud it interrupts phone conversations, thought patterns and even drowns out the neighbors’ barking dogs. The number of commercial flights has been drastically reduced as fewer people fly these days.

Another noticeable sound of silence is morning rush hour traffic. If you open your window to grab a fresh morning breeze you usually pick up the scent of car exhaust as people head for work or take their kids to school. You know the smell quite well, as it is comes with the sounds of cars whizzing by, screeching their tires sometimes, missing their exhaust mufflers and on occasion, crashing into one another. That unmistakable sound is one of the most alarming, no doubt.

With curfews prohibiting people from socializing, traveling and working, millions of Californians are stuck at home noticing that lots of things are missing. Urban noise pollution has temporarily disappeared and the silence is relaxing.