After a Thursday marked by bright sunshine on the Côte-d'Or, a completely different atmosphere accompanies us this Friday in the department. With temperatures at -6 degrees when you wake up, frosts have been there since the morning, offering pretty winter landscapes. And in the afternoon, the east of the Dijon metropolitan area was even covered in a thin white film… even though no snowfall was reported. But then, snow or no snow?
“Condensation nuclei”
It is actually industrial snow, also called “pollution snow”. A difficult-to-predict phenomenon that Météo France explains on its website. “These snowfalls occur in calm, cold weather in the presence of a powerful winter high with a strong temperature inversion. This inversion acts like a lid and has the effect of trapping air close to the ground preventing the dispersion of moisture and pollution. » Hence the appearance of stubborn fog, as is the case this Friday in Côte-d'Or.
Added to these meteorological conditions is pollution linked to human activities (industries, transport, heating appliances) which loads “the ambient air with additional humidity but also with small solid particles called condensation nuclei. At negative temperatures and in the absence of wind, water vapor attaches to these nuclei, freezes and turns into snow. »
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Pollutants trapped in fog
With this worrying name of “pollution snow”, is this phenomenon dangerous? No, according to the amateur site Météo Côte-d'Or. “ This is actually not a dangerous phenomenon although it makes roads and sidewalks slippery and can cause quite a surprise! It also takes into account the significant pollution which is accumulating above the Dijon region at the moment thanks to the anticyclone which traps all these pollutants in the fog. »
Météo Côte-d'Or still specifies that it is important not to eat or drink this snow, a “cocktail of pollutants”, and to wash your hands thoroughly in the event of prolonged contact.
France
