When a killer cloud hit Britain

[dipsydoodle]

Historic information some of may find of interest.

A little over 200 years ago, the eruption of a volcano in Iceland sent a huge toxic cloud across Western Europe. It was the greatest natural disaster to hit modern Britain, killing many thousands - but it has been almost forgotten by history.

The cloud first reached Britain on the 22 June 1783. In his Naturalist's Journal, Gilbert White reported: "The peculiar haze or smoky fog that prevailed in this island and even beyond its limits was a most extraordinary appearance, unlike anything known within the memory of man."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6276291.stm There are a couple of short video clips too.

The "killer fog" first hit Scandinavia, swirled down across Poland and Germany, crossed Belgium and France and then hit the UK formk the south.

[msedano]

1. yellow smog, evening spread out against the sky like a patient...

1783 is a long time ago. A volcano is nature's way of saying "you're dead". Smog is human-made, nature's way of saying "you're stupid but you can control it".

LONDON--Fresh analyses of London's "Big Smoke," a foul fog that descended on the city in December 1952, suggest that 8000 Londoners who died in the following 2 months succumbed to delayed effects of the smog or lingering pollution rather than flu or other causes. The debate, at a conference here earlier this week to mark the fog's 50th anniversary, reveals how much is unknown even today about the effects of smog, which continues to menace big cities, particularly in developing countries with weak air-pollution laws.

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/298/5601/2106b


mvs

http://labloga.blogspot.com
http://readraza.com

[dipsydoodle]

2. Smog

The 1952 smog didn't reappear mainly due to the first of our Clean Air Acts a few years later : http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A12736758

After that the only significant prolonged problem due to fog in London was for a few weeks during the November 1962 and since then nothing as such. In those few weeks in November it was quicker to walk than drive anywhere as, even at mid-day, from behind the steering wheel you couldn't even see to the end of the bonnet

[kestrel91316]

3. Ha ha. I got all indignant at this obvious nonsense at first.............

then realized it wasn't IRELAND they were talking about. It was Iceland.

Need. More. Caffeine.