Ask Marilyn: Do Clouds Make Your Day Noisier?

Hilary Schneider of San Juan Capistrano, California, writes:

Marilyn: My friend and I live on a hillside about a mile from a freeway from which we can hear the traffic. He says that the noise is less when there are no clouds and that the sound dissipates into the atmosphere. I contend that the noise is less when it's cloudy and that the sound is absorbed by the clouds. Who is correct?

Marilyn responds:

He is. Low clouds bounce sound back toward the ground. People who live near airports know this all too well!