Stop The Hurricane, I want to get off.

Just something that popped into my head the other day:

Were you to detonate a nuclear device in the eye of a hurricane, and a large nuke at that, would it effectively end the hurricane?

I want to hear what others have to say before I explain why I think it would.. Anyrate, it would be a hard thing to test.

My Question is why? and wouldn't the radiation be far worse than the actual hurricane itself?

i agree with lysergic... and you should explain why you think first, then we can have a discussion about that.

The blast itself would cause way more damage than the hurricane itself so you would have to do this at sea. I don't know if it could actualy stop the hurricane, it might make it even worse. I think that the environmental impact makes this a bad idea.

Mmmm, radioactive hurricane... how wonderful.

what I meant by worse is that instead of stoping it, it might make it stronger. ....And radioactive

sounds like some new alcoholic drink... c'mon Viendin, post your theory why you think it would stop it.

The Hurricane will probably blow all the radiation into the land.

not to mention more pollution for an already polluted ocean.

I thought HAARP was used to control the weather

I think what Viendin believes is that they would cancel each other out. I think it would be more like the damage of both combined plus radioactive crap being carried by the hurricane.

well that would dependon where the hurrican is at the time of detonation. you could nuke it when it was still over the ocean. and by the way american nuclear waepons leave very insignificant amounts of residual radiation. i think the same could be said by using a MOAB on a tornado. you just detonate it over the planes. and if the twister got to close to a town youd just have to let it do its thing.

[Edited on 3-27-2004 by KrazyIvan]

So KrazyIvan, you say there wouln't be much radiation? And yes, it would have to be done while it is still at sea because it would make no sense to use a nuclear bomb once the hurrican reaches land, you'll just do more damage.

But what effect would it have on the hurricane? I'm no specialist so I don't know what would happen.

I think he meant it as a hypothetical question. The question is could a large nuke stop a hurricane. Not if the hurricane is over Myrtle Beach, would nuking it be the smart thing to do/think the situation would be a huge giant imaginary room on the moon. Useing imaginary tech to create a hurricane inside this room, and then nuking the hurricane, what would happen? A nuke pushes air out, so if in the eye of the hurricane, I think it would theoritically push the storm so far apart it would collapse. Of course, this room and tech does not exist. Well, HAARP maybe, but the room doesn't.

So o answer your question, yes. Well, I think yes, don't have the reasources to test this out.

I really don't know why people think the following is true:

Nuke + Hurricane = NUCLEAR HURRICANE!

Which obviously makes a power increase +10!

Yeah, I'm just kidding with that, but I don't know how a nuke in a hurricane would strengthen the hurricane. I can see the thought behind a temporary (1-10 second) hell within the blast radius, and the fallout as well, but why you think it would increase the hurricane's capabilities.. w00sh, I'm lost.

Anyrate, a hurricane pulls a stream of warm oceanic air through its eye, this air cools as it rises, and rotates as it falls, considering that it was oceanic air, it has a lot of water, and it rains quite a bit.

My idea is that were a nuclear device detonated inside the eye, it would cut the air feed, and, depending on the size of the blast radius, vaporise much of the cloud nearby the eye. Along with this cloud goes a lot of rain and the capability to restart the eye feed. The blast ends, and the hurricane attempts to resume, only its eye is no longer a particularly stable size, and it has little to no feeding power to fill that gap in, so the outer (and weaker) regions fall in towards the center. First off, this greatly decreases the size of the hurricane, secondly, this fall in, without the running eye, would likely collapse the whole hurricane into a fair sized storm that would merely rain itself out.

Now, discuss.

Is there any comment on this?

A hurricane would "swallow" an nuke and probaly carry the fallout with it. The US gov't did experiments with weather control and hurricanes can be weakened by seeding them.

I am against any weather modification and would be willing to shoot those down who do it. Dont mess with nature because she will get even.

Other countries have threated military actions on anyone who messes with 'canes in the area.

There could be a conspiracy by the US insurance companies to fly out and seed them so they will not cause as much damage. Not a good idea because if/when this is done energy would be left behind and eventually will cause more problems down the road.

Ever wonder why we havent had a major hurricane hit the US recently, last year Isabell lost a lot of punch before making landfall and still managed to carve out a huge inlet on the Outer Banks.



[Edited on 28-3-2004 by jrod]

Not completely off topic, but I was having a discussion during a 'Call of Cthulhu' RP game as to what would happen if someone nuked Cthulhu. Since he is able to regenerate himself, the concensus was that we would have a glow in the dark, radioactive great old one who would do far more damage than the non-nuclear one.

I think nuking a hurricane would be a very bad idea.

Okay, guys, this isn't waiting until a hurricane is over the suburban regions of florida, then tossing a nuke into the winds and seeing what happens, this is a nuke detonated in the eye of the hurricane, when it is a long way out over the ocean.

Either way, I am by no means proposing this as a possible cure to our 'hurricane woes'; I am proposing this as said previously:

"I think he meant it as a hypothetical question. The question is could a large nuke stop a hurricane."

Posted By: James The Lesser

The question is, do you think that a nuclear device, or, for that matter, any large shockwave sent through the eye of a hurricane would effectively end it in the means I have previously described?

oh, and LOL pisky!

I found this thread while searching for similar information (not specifically about nukes but about the general question of weakening or completely dispersing hurricanes) and found this link very helpful:

www.usatoday.com...

-MunchTipQ

I'm pretty sure this was hypothetical....based on observing how a nuke flattens clouds in the blast, etc.

Considering the (relatively) small actual blast radius (relative to a hurricane hundreds of miles wide), I'd say that yes, it does have the power to weaken it (but not destroy it), if detonated in the center of the eye. It would disrupt the clouds forming the eyewall, and slow the rotation some, possibly weakening it down a couple categories....maybe even into a tropical storm if a Cat 1 hurricane. This is all dependant on how big of a nuke, and the radius of the eye. I'm no expert on nuke blast radiuses, but you'd need one with at least a blast radius (not fallout radius) of 20 miles to do enough to slow down Frances....(is there such a nuke?)

Of course, the fallout is then an issue, and as long as the prevailing conditions are still there, it (the storm) will simply strengthen again anyways....