Waking up on the morning of August 16, residents of the Omsk town of oil workers were dumbfounded. At night, unusual snow fell on their streets. In appearance, the powdery sediments resembled washing powder and pretty much frightened the townspeople.
For the first time locals saw the strange white powder. According to them, the substance did not look like ordinary snow - it did not melt under the warm rays of the sun. Chemical "snow" covered the sidewalks, playgrounds, cars, apartment windowsills with a thin layer, where the windows were left open at night. Omsk people were afraid to let their children go outside and called the Ministry of Emergency Situations.
The specialists who arrived together with Rosprirodnadzor took samples of an unknown substance for research and, just in case, recommended that Omsk residents temporarily refrain from walking, sports activities in the fresh air, and also urged people to keep windows closed. Initially, suspicion fell on a local thermal power plant located nearby, but the powder outwardly did not resemble ash in any way.
In the Omsk Scientific Center of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, a study of the selected sample was carried out and it was found that the chemical "snow" consists of aluminum, silicon and oxygen, which form aluminosilicate. Minor metal inclusions were also found. The precipitated substance is not toxic and does not pose a threat to the residents of Omsk.
Aluminosilicates are used in many industries, but they can also be of natural origin. So far, the culprit for the "snow" in August has not been identified. Experts assume that the emission into the atmosphere occurred as a result of a violation of technological regimes at one of the enterprises, of which there are quite a few around the city. Also, the culprit of the incident may be the nearby railway station Kombinatskaya, where cars are unloaded at night. Enterprises located in the northern industrial zone are being tested for involvement in the emissions, and the environmental prosecutor's office hopes to soon find and punish the culprit.
