Kansas now has "Slaughter House Effect Snow" much like Lake Effect Snows!

[Rocky Watson]

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/news/display_cmsstory.php?wfo=ddc&storyid=62980&source=0

 

[Maggie Kahman]

Thats kinda odd...iv never heard of that happening before

 

[Bart_Comstock]

I remember reading about a power plant making snow in OUN's area once before and I have witnessed seeing Nuclear 1 near Russellville, AR make flurries but a slaughter house?

At least the snow didn't have a slight red tint.

 

[Dan Robinson]

This has been documented before in other locations, but that is a pretty dramatic example! Power plants can also trigger convection in the warm season, which I've witnessed and shot photos/video of a few times:

http://stormhighway.com/plantstorms.shtml

 

[Lanny Dean]

I find this very interesting and have since I read the blog post on Dans site. I am curious to know if this has been documented in any fashion in DDC CWA during a convective situation? Specifically during a Cold Core event? I tried pulling up some info on it but have not been able to find anything. Would be really interesting to know if this might play into anything???

 

[John Vandehei]

I've seen snow events that were even more localized than that. The first was when I was still living with my parents in the Milwaukee area (actually, one of the southern suburbs). I was returning home one night and ran into snow. A tenth of a mile later, I was out of it. I though that was strange, so I turned around and went back through it. About a half an inch had accumulated on the road. Trying to determine how big this "mini-snowstorm" was, I took the next road to the west, about a 1/4 mile away, which paralleled the initial road. No snow. I then went back the other way, on the next road about a mile east (it was a rural area). Again, no snow. So this little snow even was confined within a square mile. Also, it wasn't moving. There was a power plant about two miles east of this event, but the condensation smoke from the stacks was blowing a different direction. To this day, I still don't know what caused such a localized snow event. Years later, a similar event took place when I was living in the Twin Cities (MN) area. Driving back from skiing, I was driving through Rosemount, a suburb of the twin cities. No snow through most of the drive, but for a two-block stretch in Rosemount, I hit moderate snow, only to exit it later. This time, there was about an inch of snow accumulated on the road. In both instances, it was like entering a fog bank, with fine snow crystals instead of fog droplets. However, these crystals were piling up on the ground at least a 1/2 inch. Obviously some rare conditions were occurring to produce very localized and low snow producing clouds, though I'm at a loss to explain what.

 

[Jordan Hartley]

Very interesting and a good post Maggie thank you!

 

[Keith Wilson]

I've heard of this before, but I've never witnessed it or seen it explained in detail like this.
Good article, and thanks for sharing it with us.

 

[Paul Knightley]

This is a common effect across the European mainland - called 'industry snow' by some. It occurs downwind of power plants, etc - there was a great satellite picture in Weather magazine a couple of years ago, showing small pockets of snow on an otherwise clear ground.

 

[ScottKoenig]

I have always wondered about this but never witnessed it person. I work for a Power company in Kansas and have noticed localized fog near the Power plants in the right conditions. The largest coal plant here in Kansas uses 24,000 gallons of water per minute. 23,000,000 gallons per day and 8,400,000,000 gallons per year. That just gives you an idea how much water vapor is coming out of the massive cooling towers, and the exhaust stacks if the plant is equipped with environmental scrubbers.