The attenuation of sound propagated out‐of‐doors is conveniently separated into attenuation due to spherical divergence and excess attenuation due to atmospheric and terrain effects. This excess attenuation is principally caused by sound absorption in the air, the refractive effects of temperature and wind gradients, by turbulence and the effects of terrain and ground cover. To investigate these effects the propagation of sound over open, level ground, through dense evergreen forests, and between hilltops was studied experimentally in the frequency range between about 300 cps and 5000 cps. Extensive micrometeorological instrumentation was utilized to measure and record the relevant micrometeorological parameters simultaneously with the acoustic data for a wide variety of weather conditions. Data on the attenuation of the mean received sound pressure level as well as on the fluctuations about the mean were obtained and correlated with the state of the atmosphere.Over open level terrain, the excess attenuation upwind was found to exceed that for downwind propagation by as much as 25–30 db for source and receiver heights of 12 and 5 ft, respectively. Temperature and wind gradients near the ground‐air interface largely account for this difference. In hilltop‐to‐hilltop propagation, wind direction is of secondary importance, and in dense woods absorption and scattering control. Empirical functions were derived for the purpose of estimating the mean excess attenuation as a function of frequency and distance, for a given set of micrometeorological conditions. These charts have been found useful in many practical problems involving the propagation of sound over open level ground.