Question

Is pollution stops rainfalls ?

Answer 1

Urban and industrial air pollution can stifle rain and snowfall, a new study shows, because the pollution particles prevent cloud water from condensing into raindrops and snowflakes. In polluted clouds, there are too many small droplets and not enough larger ones. ...

Answer 2

Answer:

Air pollution from heavy industry, power plants and oil refineries can prevent rainfall locally, according to researchers who have tracked plumes of smoke across the surrounding countryside.

The tiny aerosols of dust, soot and chemicals from factories can "stifle" rain-bearing clouds, reports Daniel Rosenfeld of the Hebrew university of Jerusalem in the US journal Science today, because the rain droplets become too small to fall.

Clouds are made up of microscopic drops of water, but these will not fall as rain until they have "seeded" around some thing, and coalesced. It takes about 1m tiny droplets to merge to form one raindrop large enough to fall without evaporating on the way down.

In polluted clouds, Dr Rosenfeld found too many small droplets and too few big ones. Smaller droplets were slower to freeze and form ice crystals, so pollution also reduced snowfall.

Using satellite data Dr Rosenfeld tracked plumes of pollution over Turkey, Canada and Australia, and used other satellite instruments to map what happened in rainclouds. The data showed that raindrops and ice crystals formed in unpolluted clouds - but the process was turned off in those parts crossed by the long, narrow plumes.