London smog

The weather in London had been unusually cold for several weeks leading up to the Great Smog disaster. Because of the cold weather in 1952, the households were burning more coal than usual to keep warm. Over one million of home stoves in combination with the emissions from industry surrounding the city released into the atmosphere massive amounts of smoke. A light fog dominated the city on December 5, but that was nothing unusual. As night came a combination of light winds, cool air and high humidity at ground-level formed a thick fog. Temperature inversion made the phenomenon motionless and it started to mix with chimney smoke, which contained toxic sulfur-dioxide, making the Great Smog. Read more about the aftermath of the event here...