Nuking a hurricane

[Guest]

Its a bad and absurd idea I know.

I saw some people talking about this elsewhere and it got me wondering - how many megatons would it take to seriously disrupt a hurricane? What would the effect actually be(besides the massive fallout)?

[30ftSmurf]

Some information on this can be found here. It's possibly just me who finds it disturbing that this makes a list of 'frequently asked questions' :)

[Munkay]

edit: Image turned out to be a Angelfire hosted image.

[Minionman]

Nuking hurricanes makes no sense even without that information, since on weather maps hurricanes look pretty darn big, as big as some states, so a nuke wouldn't seem to effect anything but a small area of it.

Edit: this is about the people who suggest niking hurricanes, not anyone in particular.

[Taeme]

Do you have any idea at the amount of force a high end nuclear weapon puts out?

It could definitely be done. But it's nose / spite / face all the way.

[Munkay]

TECHNICAL ASPECTS OF A NUCLEAR AIRBLAST

Immediately after the explosion, nuclear constituents are ejected with tremendous velocities. Through collision and other processes, most of these particles are stopped within a very short distance and their energy is eventually transferred to the surrounding air. This will, at some distance from the point of explosion, manifest itself as a sharp increase in air pressure called static overpressure accompanied by high winds caused by dynamic overpressure.

For a given weapon yield and level of blast overpressure, there is always a particular height of burst that maximises the area covered by the overpressure. With increasing heights of burst, the overpressure that reaches the ground decreases rapidly. As the height of the burst is lowered under the optimisation height for some overpressure, the area covered by that overpressure decreases somewhat.

In the immediate vicinity of the ground zero, however, blast will become increasingly stronger as the air burst gradually turns into a surface burst. Much of the air shock will be transformed to a ground shock and eventually a crater will be formed. To form a crater, melting and vaporisation of the ground due to the fireball are, however, essential in addition to blast. Severe damage to heavily fortified structures such as missile silos is, in general, believed to require surface bursts.

Air blast can cause direct or indirect damages. Direct damage is, for instance, the collapse of walls and roofs due to the fact that one side of these surfaces experiences a tremendous increase in the static overpressure whereas the other does not. Direct damage to objects such as trees, telephone poles and metal sheet constructions is mainly caused by the strong winds.

Indirect damage, caused by collapsing buildings, glass fragments and other debris flying in the air or high winds, is a much more likely mechanism for producing blast injuries and fatalities.

-Info from Here

Talk about fighting fire with fire. :P

[kandrathe]

If you live on the coast near sea level you should expect this kind of event and build accordingly. Same with wind, if you live on the east or gulf coast then you should build your house expecting 150 to 200 mph winds will occur once in a while. I never understand the waste of allowing people to build in flood zones, and then we fork out billions in disaster aid when the eventual flood occurs.

[Zarathustra]

You speak as if people KNOW that Hurricanes happen down there!

Pfft. B)

[JustAGuy]

I have to agree with you. That's not to sound unsympathetic, just realistic. Tornadoes and Hurricanes on the east coast and tropical areas, simiarly earthquakes on the west coast, are natures way of balancing things. They have beautiful (to most people's standards) weather all the time, and sooner or later, it comes time for them to pay for it. Most everywhere else, things are more moderate, and usually stay that way, but in those aforementioned places, the crap really seems to hit the fan. And in the Tornado and Hurricane-prone areas, the fan flies away and hits the neighbour's house, causing thousands of dollars of damage. Poor bastards!

I live near Lake Ontario; it' a very nice, moderate climate for most of the year. Winters are never too harsh, summers never exceedingly scorching. The worst thing to happen to us here was the Ice Storm of 7 or 8 years ago. That's right, we had some extra ice. Ah, gotta love it here. :)

[Doc]

Here I am... Nuke you like a hurricane

Sorry, bad 80's metal came to mind.

I offer my apologies in advance if that song is stuck in your head now.

[Occhidiangela]

But our building codes reflect certain min roofing quality standards, and our homeowners insurance rates keep getting jacked up year after year, not to mention that in Texas, you have added, required, "Texas Windstrom" coverage that costs me about one thousand more per year.

Lose lose.

Occhi

[jahcs]

Why anyone would choose to live in a mobile home in the gulf states is beyond me. Every time there is a major storm you see pictures of trailer parks just absolutely flattened.
I do realize some people live in mobile homes for economic reasons.

[--Pete]

Hi,

Volcanoes, tornadoes, hurricanes, Chinook, tsunami, floods, ice storms, golf ball sized hail, earthquakes, mud slides, wildfires, and the most dangerous of all, other people. It's hard to find a place to put six billion people and not subject them to one or more of those threats or others equally dangerous. Best thing to do is to remember that, while life is nice, you're not gonna get out of it alive. Till then, you pays your money and you takes your chances.

--Pete

[TaMeOlta]

Wouldn't it be easier to hunt down and kill those butterflies that cause 'em ? :P

[Lady Vashj]

Try Michigan. We have no volcanoes, earthquakes, tsunami, chinooks, mudslides, or hurricanes (and not that many tornadoes, golf-ball-sized hail, floods, or wildfires), and if you find the right spot the other people aren't very dangerous.

Ice storms are a different matter. Be sure you put your snow tires on and have your brakes checked often.

[Minionman]

Or try Illinois. Once you get used to the different temperatures, you can laugh at people who live in constant temperature areaand think 50 farenheit is cold (at least that's how it works for me, there are some other poeple who are more temperature sensitive), plus there are almost no natural disasters.

I never understand why people seem to like really hot places, but that's their opinion I guess. (I've heard these places are hot a lot, but the closest I've been is Atlanta for one summer, which was hot, but I've never felt the temperature down in those places so there's a chance they aren't as hot as I'm thinking)

[Occhidiangela]

Blizzards in the wintertime.

I like Michigan, having been there a few times, but I will gladly forego its Februaries, really. :lol:

Occhi

[Occhidiangela]

But a lot more fun!

Occhi

[Lady Vashj]

Blizzards in the wintertime.

I like Michigan, having been there a few times, but I will gladly forego its Februaries, really.  :lol:

Occhi

Blizzards, not necessarily. At least not for us trolls. We get at least ground cover, but blizzards are rare.

I would gladly forego February anywhere, except perhaps Australia. They made it the shortest month to minimize the sheer torment of having to live through it every stinkin' year.

[kandrathe]

Seattle. :)

I agree. I'm not a part of the culture that believes we need to live in danger free zones, or warn people that hot coffee is hot. I'm just commenting on the fact that people build houses in flood zones, or below sea level at the coast and then are surprised when their lives are washed away. Ok, so someone's got that beautiful beach house on the hurricane coast. Should federal disaster aid help to rebuild it every decade when it is destroyed. I think disaster aid is really a bailout for insurance companies, and makes for good baby kissing politics.