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Weather and pollution link
Name: Deanna
Status: Other
Age: N/A
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: N/A
Question:
Is there a relationship between the weather and pollution?
Replies:
There are some interesting relationships between weather and
pollution, one of the best known and understood is smog. Smog happens in
cities when a layer of cold air traps warmer air underneath, along with all
the pollutants produced in the city. This accumulation can affect the health
of humans by exacerbating respiratory disease. Acid rain is another phenomenon
that links pollution with weather: when sulfur-dioxide gases produced by
hydrocarbon combustion combine in the atmosphere with water, it forms tiny
droplets of sulfuric acid, which returns to the earth when it rains.
Finally,
some scientists speculate that carbon-dioxide pollution (hydrocarbon
combustion again) may contribute to a warming of the global climate, in which
case local weather conditions may change in ways that we cannot now predict.
We know for certain that when a big "pollution" event such as a volcanic
eruption occurs, the extra atmospheric Dallmanust scatters more sunlight into
space, leading to a slight cooling of global temperatures and unpredictable
changes in local weather patterns. I know of no case where pollution actually
causes meteorological events, it is more of an interactive relationship. When
bad weather and pollution happen at the same time, it seems worse to us than
if either one happened alone.
Don Libby
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Update: June 2012
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