CLOUD MAY LAST DAYS; WEATHER.

Byline: By ADRIAN SHAW 

TODAY'S forecast of patchy light rain for southern England means the effects of the explosion are likely to be felt for days.

Weathermen had hoped heavy downpours would wash the polluted cloud away before it could do much damage, but forecaster Peter Kidds said: "This will be only be a drizzle."

He added: "The cloud is basically a massive concentration of pollution, of solid sooty particles like the dirty diesel engine of a bus multiplied many times over.

"Low level winds from the west will blow it across London and higher altitude winds from the north east will send it in the direction of Windsor, Heathrow and Reading.

"It will disperse with time and become diluted across a bigger area. It is unlikely to go further north, but it could go as far as Southampton and as far east as the Thames estuary."

Light winds yesterday meant instead of spreading across the ground, fumes from the Buncefield blast mushroomed up into the air.

Another Met office weatherman Steward Wortley said of "black rain" forecasts: "If people have had their cars washed, they will regret it."