Man Made Disasters
#4 londons killer fog
The meteorological conditions were favorable for fog formation and characterized by little wind to disperse smoke horizontally. In addition, an inversion above the surface trapped air from rising vertically. As such, the combination of smoke and fog inevitably led to an increasingly dense layer of smog.
Sixty years ago this month (December), London was enveloped under a toxic mix of dense fog and sooty black smoke for four days. This episode of polluted air is among the deadliest environmental disasters in recorded history.
The event became known as the Great Smog of 1952. Over 4,000 more people died than usual for that time of year with an estimated 8,000 more fatalities in the following weeks from exposure to the noxious air pollution.
While not as deadly – and not as well-known - hundreds of deaths have been attributed directly to episodes of severe smog in the U.S. over the 60 intervening years - including three
killer smog events in New York City.
The setup for the deadly London smog episode involved a stagnant very cold high pressure region that settled over the city December 5, 1962. Along with the usual factory emissions of coal smoke and soot, increasing burning of coal for home heating added to smoke levels pouring from chimneys.