How the Chernobyl nuclear disaster forever changed British skies

Ed Griffiths
Thu, 23 Apr 2026 13:57:43 +0000

Jim Dale, meteorologist for British Weather Services, said: I remember it well. I remember the concern and sometimes the panic that followed the explosion, with all eyes cast towards the skies, the weather forecasts and the wind speed and direction over the next fortnight or so, which at the time wasn’t favourable for the U.K., with concern about the radioactive fallouts.

This was a stark reminder that whatever the concern, whatever the cause, and whatever the fallouts, we come a very poor second to the whims of the weather.

The NAME model meanwhile is a very important and useful technological advancement in terms of plotting and anticipating whatever might come our way and for other countries too, but the bottom line is that in itself it won’t stop it, if something major like that happens again, we are at the mercy of the gods!

Alan Owen, the founder of LabRats International (Legacy of the Atomic Bomb Recognition for Atomic Test Survivors) said: "The disaster spread fallout across not just the local area, but across the world. Lives were lost and continued research in 2026 shows that the children of the workers are experiencing DNA mutations and this is why we are calling for research into the descendants of the nuclear test veterans, the civilians, scientists and indigenous people who have been affected by the tests."

Mr Owen highlighted that the environmental effects of radiation are "unrecognised", citing cases in Australia and on Christmas Island contaminated by tests.