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Nuclear bombs tested during the Cold War were responsible for torrents of rain over the United Kingdom in the 1960s, according to new research from the University of Reading.
The electrical charge from the test detonations, performed primarily by the United States and the Soviet Union in the 1950s and 1960s, had a significant impact on the climate.
According to scientists at the University of Reading, historical records from research stations show significantly more rainfall on the days, which also featured more radioactivity.
Professor Giles Harrison, lead author of the study, said: “By studying radioactivity released from Cold War weapons testing, scientists at that time learned about atmospheric circulation patterns.
“We have now reused this data to examine the effect on rain.”
The electrical charge in the atmosphere affects how water droplets in clouds collide and merge, which, according to the researchers’ hypothesis, affects the size of those droplets and influences rain.
However, it is very difficult to observe that this occurs in the atmosphere, so the scientists combined bomb test data with meteorological records to investigate retrospectively.
During the Cold War nuclear tests were carried out in some of the most remote parts of the world, but radioactive contamination rapidly spread throughout the atmosphere.
This contamination caused the molecules in the atmosphere to become ionized or electrically charged.
The study used data collected 300 miles northwest of Scotland in the Shetland Islands, which is unaffected by other forms of contamination.
Rainfall measurements there were compared to atmospheric electricity measurements taken at Kew in west London.
From almost 150 days where there was a generation of high or low load in the UK, the rain in Shetland showed important differences that disappeared after the main radioactivity episode ended.
According to the research, published in the journal Physical Review Letters: “Significant changes occurred in the daily rainfall distribution in the Shetland Islands, away from contamination.
“The daily rainfall changed by 24%, and the local cloud thickened optically, within the nuclear weapons test period,” they found, supporting their hypotheses that electrical charges caused by nuclear explosions impact the weather.
“This supports expectations of electrically induced microphysical changes in liquid water clouds by additional ionization.
Professor Harrison added: “The politically charged atmosphere of the Cold War led to a nuclear arms race and global anxiety.
“Decades later, that global cloud has cast a silver lining, giving us a unique way to study how electrical charge affects rain.”
