A SCIENTIST last night said industrial smoke from Didcot Power Station causes bizarre snowfalls in the area.

University of Reading meteorologist Dr Curtis Wood, 27, believes particles contained in gases from the power station cause freezing fog to solidify into snow, which leads to random flurries around the plant.

RWE npower bosses last night admitted the power station did have an effect on local weather conditions.

And one local councillor said it is something people who have lived near the plant have known for years.

The new study for the Royal Meteorological Society journal Weather included data from winter 2006, showing snow fell around the power station when the rest of the county stayed foggy, but dry.

Dr Wood said: “What normally happens with freezing fog is a process called ‘super-cooling’ where, even though it is below freezing temperature, it remains liquid.

“To cause snow, you need some sort of particle in the air.

“Around power stations, it seems pretty probable that some industrial effluent acts as that catalyst.

“There were no weather fronts or clouds and they occurred in a local area of a few hundred metres, and within a mile of probable sources such as power plants. It is thought impossible for atmospheric ice to form near to freezing point if the air is pristine.”

Slightly warmer conditions had caused snow to fall as needles instead of flakes, he said.

Town councillor John Flood, who lives a mile from the plant, said: “I remember one year when our little bit of Didcot was a white world. It was like hoar frost on everything.

“It’s very, very rare, but I think it’s something most of us who live near the power station have known for years.

“With the plumes of steam out the top, we’ve got our very own microclimate.”

But Maggie Goodenough, 56, who lives on Cavendish Caravan Park close to the power station, said: “I’ve lived here 18 years and I’ve never seen more snow around here than the rest of the county. Normally, Wallingford and Benson gets it worse than we do in Didcot. When we get a flurry, they get a layer.”

RWE npower spokesman Claire Loveday said the 40-year-old power station did cause some localised weather conditions, including fog, but operators had not noticed any effect on snowfall.

The company said it was not aware of a problem across the industry, although Dr Wood’s research found a similar phenomenon at a power station in Hereford.

Dr Wood said a health risk from the unseasonal snowfalls seemed unlikely.

He said: “These particles are going up into the air all the time anyway just by combustion in the power station. The real issue is the unexpected nature of it when the weather forecasts are telling us it’s going to be dry.”

He said that sudden snowfalls could leave local authorities struggling to grit the roads, causing potential accidents.

didcot@oxfordmail.co.uk