Nuclear Winter Wonder Land

howdy, just wondering...

when there is a nuclear blast and the fallout traverses the countryside how would one predict its path? would it travel with the wind? also how far would it reach?

with all of these talks of chaos and nuclear war, this kind of information seems rather important so we can all find the fastest route to safety in case of such a disaster.

when there is a nuclear blast and the fallout traverses the countryside how would one predict its path? would it travel with the wind? also how far would it reach?

Yes, it would follow the wind. It disperses with distance, but it's all relative to the megatons in the bomb. There are some good sites out there that show the blast radius, relative fallout amount, etc. of various megatons...

Bottom line though, unless you're underground, really far from targets, or in mountains away from targets, you're pretty much screwed in an all-out nuke war scenario...

well there has got to be a certain point where when you see the blast and get in your ferrarie you will be able to out run the fallout. any way thanks for the words of reassurance or lack there of. i best start diggin my bomb hole now lol

It takes lots of nukes to gain nuclear winter effect. Largest atmospheric nuclear bomb ever detonated had a yield of 57 megatons. The energy of 57 megaton bomb equals the energy released by 57 one megaton nukes or 3800 nukes equal to one that hit Hiroshima (15 kilotons). And yet we still live the way we always have.

Of course the amount of fallout is not linear when you compare yield and plurality of the nukes, but few warheads going off somewhere don't necessarily mean you have to quit your dayjob.

"Go where the wind doesn't" is the good rule of thumb when you wish to avoid fallout.

[edit on 4-11-2004 by vibetic]