During the Cold War the existential threat posed by nuclear weapons hung like a dark cloud over humanity. A study suggests they also made Scotland considerably rainier.
Scientists have found that the radiation from nuclear weapons tests, carried out mostly by the United States and Soviet Union in the 1950s and 1960s, affected rain clouds.
On days between 1962 and 1964 when the fallout from test detonations led to higher levels of radioactive material in the atmosphere, Scotland suffered appreciably worse weather. Clouds were thicker and there was 24 per cent more rain, on average, per downpour, Scottish weather records show.
The tests are likely to have affected the weather in other regions in a similar way, the researchers say.
The extra rainfall came
