The Great Smog of London, or Great Smog of 1952, was a severe air pollution event that affected London, England, in December 1952. A period of unusually cold weather, combined with an anticyclone and windless conditions, collected airborne pollutants—mostly arising from the use of coal —to form a thick layer of smog over the city.

Feb 6, 2025 · The Great Smog of London was a lethal smog that covered the city of London for five days (December 5–9) in 1952. It was caused by a combination of industrial pollution and high-pressure weather conditions.

Oct 23, 2020 · The Smoke. For all its merits, London has long had a problem with air pollution. As industrialisation expanded in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Londoners began using coal to heat their homes, producing clouds of black smoke across the city.

During December a weather formation called an anticyclone trapped the coal smoke, while an easterly wind carried more polluted air to London from Europe. As a result, dense smog covered London between 5–9 December 1952. How did it affect Londoners? As the sun rose on Friday 5 December 1952, Londoners behaved as normal.

Aug 11, 2023 · In December 1952 conditions took a turn for the worst in what is now known as ‘The Great Smog of London’ when a thick layer of smog descended over the city after a period of windless and cold weather conditions combined with the smoke the city was omitting.

Dec 6, 2012 · After five days of living in a sulfurous hell, the Great Smog finally lifted on December 9, when a brisk wind from the west swept the toxic cloud away from London and out to the North Sea....

70 years after the Great London Smog of 1952, the report describes the air quality issues London faced baked then, the evolution of pollution sources associated with the change in residential...

Between December 5 and 9, 1952, the environmental disaster strangled London. It would affect British health—and its climate—for years to come. Here’s how the fog struck the chilly city...