Just Nuke Those Rotten Hurricanes!

Believe it or not this is a serious albeit hypothetical question being discussed by scientist and the public alike. Just this morning on my drive to work they were discussing it on the radio. And sure enough if you Google it, you get no shortage of discussions on this seemingly stupid answer to mother natures destructive powers. NOAA says they get tons of questions about this every hurricane season.

Before we get to any "science" in this let me just say, yes. Nuke the bastard.

I mean which one of our problems haven't been solved by dropping bombs? It has a PERFECT track record. Just bomb the crap out of our problems. Works every time its tried



Problem solved.

Lets forget about radiation for a moment here. Lets assume that a radioactive hurricane is somehow less dangerous than a conventional one.

Would a nuke actually help dissapate or weaken a hurricane?

Proponents of nuking storms point out that hurricanes are major centers of low pressure air, so in theory, increasing the air pressure will nullify them. A shock wave produced by a nuclear warhead is indeed a high-pressure outburst. The energy released by a nuclear bomb detonated just above and ahead of the eye of a storm would heat the cooler air there, disrupting the storm's convection current.

Maybe these guys are on to something here.

Jack W. Reed, a meteorologist at Sandia Laboratory actually wrote a research paper arguing for this idea.

In his paper, Reed speculated that a submarine could travel underwater to penetrate the eye of a hurricane, where it would launch and detonate one or more nuclear missiles. The ensuing explosion would loft most of the relatively warm air in the hurricane's eye high above the storm into the stratosphere. The warm air would then be replaced by colder, denser air—reducing the wind speed and weakening the storm.

Sounds like a killer action movie.
Read his full paper here

Lets check in with the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)
NOAA maintains a webpage dedicated to debunking this idea

The heat release is equivalent to a 10-megaton nuclear bomb exploding every 20 minutes. According to the 1993 World Almanac, the entire human race used energy at a rate of 1013 watts in 1990, a rate less than 20% of the power of a hurricane.

If we think about mechanical energy, the energy at humanity's disposal is closer to the storm's, but the task of focusing even half of the energy on a spot in the middle of a remote ocean would still be formidable. Brute force interference with hurricanes doesn't seem promising.

Not looking good for the Nukes. But don't give up yet. We know what good we can do with some good ol' fashion Nature bombing.

To change a Category 5 hurricane into a Category 2 hurricane you would have to add about a half ton of air for each square meter inside the eye, or a total of a bit more than half a billion (500,000,000) tons for a 20 km radius eye. It's difficult to envision a practical way of moving that much air around.

A fully developed hurricane releases 50 or more terawatts of heat energy at any given moment, only about 1 percent of which is converted into wind. The heat release, Landsea wrote, "is equivalent to a 10-megaton nuclear bomb exploding every 20 minutes." The entire human race in 2011 used about a third of the energy present in an average hurricane. So bombing a hurricane might be about as effective as trying to stop a speeding Buick with a feather.

So it seems that even our most powerful destructive forces are nothing compared to what our planet can manage. Silly humans.

But I say all these scientist are stupid, they got their degrees at a Walmart. Lets nuke these sons of female dogs and show nature what we can do.


When in doubt, whip those nukes out.



IFI Scienve Link
NatGeo Link
NOAA Link

gotta nuke somethin'

a reply to: FauxMulder

I like this idea. We should also drop 10 megaton nuclear devices on earthquakes, tidal waves and spiders.

a reply to: FauxMulder

"Let's forget about radiation?" People do 't want nuclear reactors in their town because they are afraid of radiation, and you say "let's forget about radiation?" That aside, the heat of the explosion would likely lower the atmospheric pressure, making things worse.

I think dumping oil on it is a better solution but it would take LOTS of oil or a lot of nukes.

a reply to: FauxMulder

Sounds like a great premise for a new Sharknado-type of Syfy/Comedy flick.

"A hurricane gets irradiated and Hulk-like after scientists/military try to nuke it... evolves into a category 12 storm causing nuclear fallout and hurricane destruction on everything in its path..."

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

And mosquitoes. I hate those useless insects.

Also we should drop the Rods of God on all summer thunder storms. They've ruined enough back yard barbecues.

originally posted by: DJW001
a reply to: FauxMulder

and you say "let's forget about radiation?"

It was rhetorical for the sake of seeing if a nuke would do anything to a hurricane. I thought the dripping sarcasm would have given that away.

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

We can direct a meteor from space into the eye of the hurricane to try and cork it like putting a drain plug in the sink!

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus
a reply to: FauxMulder

I like this idea. We should also drop 10 megaton nuclear devices on earthquakes, tidal waves and spiders.

You say spiders like it's overkill. 10 megaton nuclear devices are not enough.

a reply to: FauxMulder

I would not advise use of nuclear weapons for this task, but a large cluster of MOAB bombs, launched in such a way as to detonate on contact with the eyewall, preferably on the leading edge, all up and down its height, might slow it down at least. Using conventional explosives would also have the benefit of not being utterly stupid from a radiological perspective. Put simply, if we have Fukushima in the world, we cannot have anti-hurricane nukes. They would be a decidedly stupid idea, even without Fukushima to consider.

originally posted by: FamCore
a reply to: FauxMulder

"A hurricane gets irradiated and Hulk-like after scientists/military try to nuke it... evolves into a category 12 storm causing nuclear fallout and hurricane destruction on everything in its path..."

originally posted by: FauxMulder
Also we should drop the Rods of God on all summer thunder storms. They've ruined enough back yard barbecues.

What about loud neighbors? I want them handled in the same manner.

a reply to: FauxMulder

Good Lord... its almost prophetic.

Stunning realism there FauxMulder!

How many nukes would a nuke-chuck nuke if a nuke=chuck could nuke nukes?

originally posted by: Martin75

You say spiders like it's overkill. 10 megaton nuclear devices are not enough.

I was thinking of the children.

No, I wasn't, Tzar Bomba them.

a reply to: TrueBrit

Lol, i thought it was pretty excellent. Definitely B list movie material.

I think doing such a thing would only increase the hurricane's intensity and transform it into a not just a hypercane, but a radioactive hypercane.

Sounds fun.

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

Yes absolutely. I propose a bureaucratic government council where you can request your problems to be nuked. This will be a lifetime appointment. Senate approval required of course. I'm not a commie.

originally posted by: FauxMulder
I propose a bureaucratic government council where you can request your problems to be nuked.

In that case I know a certain cowpoke in the Portland area who's gonna glow in the dark.