A nuclear war-like mushroom cloud that regularly appears over Avonmouth. (Image: SWNS)
Pictures show a nuclear war-like mushroom cloud that regularly appears over a city – caused by an industrial complex.
The dramatic phenomenon is familiar to local people in Avonmouth on the outskirts of Bristol.
It tends to appear during calmer, colder days of autumn and winter and always in the same same spot.
The towering mass of cloud looks like a thunderstorm, fire, or even a nuclear mushroom cloud.
But it is thought to be caused by rising warm, moist air from outflow stacks and chimneys at an industrial complex in Avonmouth.
It is not pollution and locals claim it caused by steam rising from power station chimneys.
The steam condenses and forms a plume of cloud – sometimes massive in size.
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It is thought to be caused by rising warm, moist air from outflow chimneys at an industrial complex. (Image: SWNS)
Richard Barcan was out walking with his wife on the Downs, a large green space in Bristol, when he spotted the unusual sight in the sky over Avonmouth.
Richard, who took the photo at 10:55am last Tuesday (3 December), said: “”My first thought was ‘Oh dear, it’s kicked off. is attacking NATO – need to get home and check our wills’.
“Having reasoned with myself that I’d hopefully have had a text alert in that situation I pondered whether it was a tornado heading our way but it was a calm day.
“We were quite bemused – it was quite a dramatic sight but no one really seemed to notice which surprised me.”
Usually, the plume of warm air would continue rising higher into the ever-colder atmosphere above.
But instead the cloud reaches a point (at about 6,000ft) where the air starts to both suddenly warm and dry out – known as a temperature inversion.
Under high pressure in winter, these inversions are a common feature and the reason fog sometimes gets locked in and can persist without rising.