# Can a nuclear explosion set off in the eye of a hurricane disrupt its intensity? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 3, 2016, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-nuclear-explosion-set-off-in-the-eye-of-a-hurricane-disrupt-its-intensity/756425 "2016-06-03T20:45:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mewmd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@mewmd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mewmd)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2016, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-nuclear-explosion-set-off-in-the-eye-of-a-hurricane-disrupt-its-intensity/756425/1 "2016-06-03T20:45:11Z")
Notwithstanding the radiation fallout, theoretically, can a nuclear explosion purposely set of in a mature severe hurricane disrupt the forces that propagate this weather phenomenon? This question may be moot if the radiation released is unacceptable and if so, are there any non radioactive bombs that can be utilized? ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2016, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-nuclear-explosion-set-off-in-the-eye-of-a-hurricane-disrupt-its-intensity/756425/2 "2016-06-03T20:57:44Z")
The answer is no. There’s no human bomb with enough energy to move the required mass of air the required distance. [TCFAQ C5c) Why don't we try to destroy tropical cyclones by nuking](http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/tcfaq/C5c.html) ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2016, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-nuclear-explosion-set-off-in-the-eye-of-a-hurricane-disrupt-its-intensity/756425/3 "2016-06-03T21:53:47Z")
It’s cool that the answer isn’t “nuclear weapons don’t work that way,” but is in fact “nuclear weapons are _far too weak._” ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2016, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-nuclear-explosion-set-off-in-the-eye-of-a-hurricane-disrupt-its-intensity/756425/4 "2016-06-03T22:00:15Z")
All you’d get is a radioactive hurricane. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2016, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-nuclear-explosion-set-off-in-the-eye-of-a-hurricane-disrupt-its-intensity/756425/5 "2016-06-03T22:10:00Z")
If I weren’t on a smartphone I’d link IIRC three prior threads on the exact same question. Basically it’s like a SciFi villain laughing at you puny humans and your pitiful weapons, but being completely right about it. ---
**Author:** ![joema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a9adbd/32.png) [@joema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joema)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2016, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-nuclear-explosion-set-off-in-the-eye-of-a-hurricane-disrupt-its-intensity/756425/6 "2016-06-03T23:47:58Z")
> [@Sailboat](#): > > It’s cool that the answer isn’t “nuclear weapons don’t work that way,” but is in fact “nuclear weapons are _far too weak._” That is actually not correct. Nuclear weapons can be made in any size required. 50,000 megaton devices have been studied. This doesn’t mean it’s practical, only that the “too weak” argument for nuclear weapons is not necessarily correct. Apparently the only person to seriously study this was meteorologist Jack Reed, who felt it might work, maybe at the 20 megaton level. This would use an air burst and not cause significant fallout. > **[Nuking Hurricanes](http://atomic-skies.blogspot.com/2013/09/nuking-hurricanes.html)** > > Excursions into the history of atomic energy. My gut feel is the macro-level forces driving the hurricane are so diffuse that it would simply reform, much like a bathtub vortex does after you disrupt it. Nowadays there are sophisticated computer models which could be run to investigate this, but I seriously doubt anybody has run them. ---
**Author:** ![NeonMadman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/58f4c7/32.png) [@NeonMadman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NeonMadman)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2016, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-nuclear-explosion-set-off-in-the-eye-of-a-hurricane-disrupt-its-intensity/756425/7 "2016-06-04T00:13:54Z")
If it wouldn’t work for a hurricane, how about for a rip-roaring thunderstorm? I’ve read in the past (though can’t recall where) that a thunderstorm releases more energy than \*\*\*X \*\*\*number of nuclear weapons. So what if you set off a nuke in a thunderstorm? ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2016, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-nuclear-explosion-set-off-in-the-eye-of-a-hurricane-disrupt-its-intensity/756425/8 "2016-06-04T01:53:19Z")
Conventional explosives to burst apart a mere tornado? A WWII era 1,000 pound bomb, at just the right point on the funnel wall? (Was it Mark Twain who wrote, humorously, about using Civil War cannons to blow holes in the funnel walls of tornadoes?) ---
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2016, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-nuclear-explosion-set-off-in-the-eye-of-a-hurricane-disrupt-its-intensity/756425/9 "2016-06-04T02:44:10Z")
1,000 pound bomb vs. the smallest tornadoes … that’d be close Typical hydrogen bomb vs. the largest tornadoes … tornado disappears I think … vs. a large thunderstorm … again close … vs. small tropical depression is again close. Tropical storm and hurricanes cover a lot of geographic area … like lighting a match in a spiderweb … at that one point, sure, some disruption … but the storm itself will continue. Here’s an [diagram](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoon_Tip#/media/File:Typhoonsizes.jpg) with Typhoon Tip superimposed on the USA … one nuke in the Nevada desert won’t do much … unless it covered all of Nevada. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2016, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-nuclear-explosion-set-off-in-the-eye-of-a-hurricane-disrupt-its-intensity/756425/10 "2016-06-04T03:03:42Z")
Hurricane…Nevada…Hurricane…Nevada… [Jack Benny voice]: I’m thinking, I’m thinking! ---
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2016, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-nuclear-explosion-set-off-in-the-eye-of-a-hurricane-disrupt-its-intensity/756425/11 "2016-06-04T03:20:55Z")
If you can get some fissionable material, I got a place we can stay in Florida. We won’t get the answer until we try … ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2016, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-nuclear-explosion-set-off-in-the-eye-of-a-hurricane-disrupt-its-intensity/756425/12 "2016-06-04T03:21:19Z")
What if the storm had picked up a bunch of sharks? ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2016, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-nuclear-explosion-set-off-in-the-eye-of-a-hurricane-disrupt-its-intensity/756425/13 "2016-06-04T03:38:00Z")
Some interesting facts: [http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/tcfaq/C5c.html](http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/tcfaq/C5c.html) The heat release [from a hurricane] 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. …an explosive, even a nuclear explosive, produces a shock wave, or pulse of high pressure, that propagates away from the site of the explosion somewhat faster than the speed of sound. Such an event doesn’t raise the barometric pressure after the shock has passed because barometric pressure in the atmosphere reflects the weight of the air above the ground. 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. So “no”. A large atomic bomb could easily disrupt a tornado. This approach is largely considered impractical as the bomb would do far more damage than the tornado ever could. ---
**Author:** ![minor7flat5](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minor7flat5/32/258_2.png) [@minor7flat5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minor7flat5)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2016, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-nuclear-explosion-set-off-in-the-eye-of-a-hurricane-disrupt-its-intensity/756425/14 "2016-06-04T03:43:38Z")
> [@naita](#): > > The answer is no. There’s no human bomb with enough energy to move the required mass of air the required distance. [TCFAQ C5c) Why don't we try to destroy tropical cyclones by nuking](http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/tcfaq/C5c.html) Bravo to a clear concise answer with excellent supporting cite in the first response! ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2016, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-nuclear-explosion-set-off-in-the-eye-of-a-hurricane-disrupt-its-intensity/756425/15 "2016-06-04T04:14:05Z")
I admit, I’d be kinda curious as to what would happen if you set off an [unusually powerful bomb](http://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/?&kt=100000&lat=31.3370544&lng=-67.3603678&airburst=0&hob_ft=0&ff=52&zm=9) inside an [unusually](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropical_Storm_Marco_%282008%29) _small_ [hurricane](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclone_Tracy). Nothing worth the trouble and expense, I’m sure. But then, you could argue that about _all_ good fireworks shows, if you’re stodgy enough. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2016, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-nuclear-explosion-set-off-in-the-eye-of-a-hurricane-disrupt-its-intensity/756425/16 "2016-06-04T04:20:03Z")
Despite the obvious consensus I’m still not convinced. Yes the amount of energy in a hurricane is vastly more than even the most powerful h-bombs. But disrupting a system does not necessarily involve providing an exactly contradictory force. It’s not like we’re talking about making a counter-rotating hurricane then cancelling them out (though that would be a cool movie). Systems / processes can often be disrupted with a tiny fraction of the energy of the complete system. I wouldn’t rule it out until someone does the computer modeling. Not that I’m saying it’s a sensible idea to actually try ofc. Sent from my Lenovo K50-t3s using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2016, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-nuclear-explosion-set-off-in-the-eye-of-a-hurricane-disrupt-its-intensity/756425/17 "2016-06-04T04:21:55Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > What if the storm had picked up a bunch of sharks? I’m guessing then that the explosion would shred them, bread them, cook them, and land them wrapped in paper all around the city… some with tartar sauce & some ‘nucular’ hot. I’d expect that the producers would have some deal for coupons with your tickets for McDonalds, Burger King, Wendy’s or maybe even Dead Lobster… ---
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2016, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-nuclear-explosion-set-off-in-the-eye-of-a-hurricane-disrupt-its-intensity/756425/18 "2016-06-04T04:45:56Z")
From a NOAA FAQ [“How much energy does a hurricane release?”](http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/tcfaq/D7.html): > [@](#): > > Using the latent heat of condensation, this amount of rain produced gives > 5.2 x 10[sup]19[/sup] Joules/day or > 6.0 x 10[sup]14[/sup] Watts. If half a megaton = 4.2 x 10[sup]8[/sup] Joules, detonation of 1/100 second gives 4.2 x 10[sup]10[/sup] Watts. Like a match on a spider web … The only way to kill a hurricane is to feed it dry air, and we’ll need to do that for quite some time for the cyclone to spin down. A nuclear blast is at best a hundredth the power, and that for only a short time, then it’s gone and the hurricane she’ll just keep rolling … ---
**Author:** ![Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aji_de_gallina/32/260_2.png) [@Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aji_de_Gallina)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2016, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-nuclear-explosion-set-off-in-the-eye-of-a-hurricane-disrupt-its-intensity/756425/19 "2016-06-04T04:58:49Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > All you’d get is a radioactive hurricane. From the creators of “Sharknado” comes a new film “Nuclear Piranhacane”…_they wanted to control nature and now she comes back with a vengenace_. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2016, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-nuclear-explosion-set-off-in-the-eye-of-a-hurricane-disrupt-its-intensity/756425/20 "2016-06-04T05:36:00Z")
I’m told that if you could convince a butterfly to flap its wings in just the right way several months earlier, you could deflect the hurricane away from the coast. Perhaps a cleverly deployed H-bomb might have some effect as well! 🆒 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-nuclear-explosion-set-off-in-the-eye-of-a-hurricane-disrupt-its-intensity/756425.md?page=2)