When it's particularly windy outside, the inside of your toilet can be affected! You may notice that the water level in your toilet seems to change! You may notice that there seems to be less water in the toilet when there is a wind. You may also notice that the water is sloshing around, even though the wind is blowing outdoors. To understand what's happening, you first need to know that the operation of your toilet depends on more than just what you see in the bathroom.

Obviously, there is a pipe that drains into the sewer or septic tank, but there is another pipe that could be coming out of your roof. This is called a "vent pipe". Without the vent pipe, your toilet wouldn't flush. It's like putting your thumb on the end of a straw in a drink and the liquid stays inside. The same thing would happen to your toilet. So, when you flush, the stack allows the air pressure to push the water downwards, causing it to be pushed down the drain.

Now, when it is very windy and the air blows through the stack, it creates a small low pressure area above the stack, low pressure is rising air, because of those winds, a little bit of air rises up out of the pipe and brings the water level down in the toilet. If that tiny low pressure area fluctuates a lot, the water will bob around. So the next time it's really windy outside, you might see low or rough water in your toilet bowl.