Meteorologists Dismiss Reports of Barents Sea Nuclear Cloud
The official Dutch meteorological institute KNMI said today that reports of a large nuclear cloud over the Barents Sea in the Soviet Union were unfounded.
KNMI spokesman Tjalling Landmeter said Dutch and Finnish meteorological institutes had concluded after studying satellite pictures of the cloud formation that it was an uncommon but quite natural phenomenon.
The largest Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf reported today that May 27 to May 29 satellite pictures showed a large cloud band about 150 miles northeast of the Soviet city of Murmansk.
It said the cloud was about 120 miles long by 9 to 12 miles wide.
“On normal satellite pictures the cloud is only visible as a long white band and could give rise to the interpretation it might stem from an explosion,” Landmeter said by telephone from the KNMI headquarters in the central Dutch town of De Bilt.
“But if the cloud was due to an explosion, it should appear in dark on infra-red pictures. It did not, it was light. It is a cold cloud, not man-made,” he added.
The De Telegraaf report was based on the initial suspicions of a KNMI expert.
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