The other day, NASA’s Earth Observatory posted some interesting pictures about localized snow in the Netherlands. Several fields in Heensche Molen, a hamlet in the western Netherlands, glowed white as though a spotlight had been shone over them, leaving nearby areas untouched. According to their interpretation, the snowfall was caused by a drop in temperature that led to the condensation of the tiny droplets of water in the fog over these areas into ice crystals, which fell as snowflakes.

As Pola Lem explains on Earth Observatory, fog-induced snow is a rare and somewhat obscure phenomenon, that typically forms next to industrial sites.

“Big chimneys release water vapor and other gases and particulates, which can lead to the formation of fog. It also turns out that these emissions can create snow when the weather gets cold enough,” she wrote.