Elevated exposure rates under inclined birch trees indicate the occurrence of rainfall during radioactive fallout from Chernobyl.

Knowledge of the mode of deposition (wet or dry) during the main fallout period following the Chernobyl accident in late April 1986 is one of the most important parameters in environmental reconstruction of the radiation dose to the thyroid from 131 I following the accident. Meteorological data are available only for a small number of locations, but routine field measurements in 1997 of exposure rates in areas still contaminated by 137 Cs revealed that there is a natural indicator of wet deposition. Follow-up measurements confirmed that there is a significant difference in exposure rates measured on different sides at the bases of inclined birch trees in areas of wet deposition. In such areas, the exposure rates measured on the sheltered sides of the trees were on average 2.3 ± 0.2 times those measured on the unsheltered side. In areas of dry deposition the comparable ratio was 1.01 ± 0.02 for similarly inclined trees. Because birch trees are a common feature in the contaminated territories, this effect has a wide potential for use in determining whether the fallout in many areas was due to wet or dry deposition.