§ Mr. Frank Allaunasked the Secretary of State for Air what degree of official scientific support there is for the belief that hydrogen bomb test explosions affect the weather, in view of the three wet summers up to 1958 and the finer summer this year following the suspension of tests last autumn.
Mr. WardI am advised that informed scientific opinion throughout the world is that there is so far no reason to believe that isolated test explosions of nuclear weapons have had any influence on the weather, except in the immediate neighbourhood of the testing ground, and then only temporarily. Although rainfall this year has been well below average in the southern part of the United Kingdom, in parts of Scotland it has been above the average for June and July. The variations fall within the known climatic range of this country.