Any power plant or factory using cooliing towers will cause localized snow under the right conditions. A nuclear plants larger towers would create a larger impact.
Before 2 of the trash to energy plants were shut down for having cronic polution problems a short stretch of I 495 in north eastern Massachusetts was prone to fog or a dusting of snow at times if conditions were right because of a 3 power plant cluster in a 3 sq mile area.
A food processing plant off I 93 has been known for decades to generate fog and a local dusting of snow on the highway under the right conditions.
That’s a question on the lips of people in Pennsylvania, after an inch of snow fell due to the plant’s activities.
First reported by The Washington Post, the U.S. National Weather Service in Pittsburgh, PA, gave us a glimpse of how our need for power can affect the environment.
According to the service’s Facebook page, a band of snow was generated by the Beaver Valley Nuclear Power Plant near Shippingport. Up to two inches of snow fell as a result of the steam billowing from the stacks.
When freezing cold air streams in — in this example, from the northwest — interacting with the plumes of hot steam emitted from the plant, basic science dictates that condensation and clouds form, resulting in precipitation and — you guessed it — snow.
The low temperatures and concentrated area was key for the snow formation, where “inversion” took place at around 5,000 feet, which kept the steam from rising up and dispersing in a normal fashion. Instead, due to a calm night and basically no wind, the stream hung out near the plant, only to be hit by very cold and dry air.
As a result, up to two inches fell across Shippingport on Tuesday night.
“The snow that fell yesterday is not common, but when the weather ingredients are favorable, it can form,” AccuWeather.com Senior Meteorologist Bernie Rayno said. “That’s what happened yesterday. It’s a unique situation, but not rare.”
Check out the full image below:
(via The Washington Post)
Image credit: U.S. National Weather Service
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