Cold Air Sinks

Published on 10-12-2008 by Dr Paul Beckett

This remarkable discovery was made this day in 1784 accidentally by rural clergyman, Gilbert White in his Hampshire parish but it was not until 1814 that Dr William Wells identified the process at work: cold air, because it is heavier, flows downhill, collecting in hollows in the landscape. 150 years later fruit growers in Kent come to terms with the phenomenon of ‘frost hollows’ or ‘pockets’.