# Nuclear Blast Maps...type in your zip code!
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-blast-maps-type-in-your-zip-code/276266
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [November 23, 2004, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-blast-maps-type-in-your-zip-code/276266 "2004-11-23T13:26:40Z")
**Posts on this page:** 19
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@GingerOfTheNorth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GingerOfTheNorth)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2004, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-blast-maps-type-in-your-zip-code/276266/21 "2004-11-23T18:55:14Z")
We’re within 30 miles of Washington, DC and Andrews AFB, and only a mile or so from the Port of Baltimore. We’d die quickly.
---
### Author:  [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2004, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-blast-maps-type-in-your-zip-code/276266/22 "2004-11-23T19:03:41Z")
> [@GingerOfTheNorth](#):
>
> We’re within 30 miles of Washington, DC and Andrews AFB, and only a mile or so from the Port of Baltimore. We’d die quickly.
But that’s what I’m confused about, **Ginger**. According to these numbers (I still can’t get the stupid map to load - is it taking over 15 minutes for you guys? 'Cause I don’t have that kind of patience.), you’d be just fine if D.C. was hit. If the Port of Baltimore was hit, you’d be “be ravaged by fires and radiation,” but the buildings would remain undamaged.
> [@](#):
>
> From the epicenter of the blast to a distance of approximately one-third mile, every structure will be destroyed and no one would be left alive. A second circle of destruction extending three-quarters of a mile from ground zero would leave buildings looking like the Federal Office Building in Oklahoma City. A third circle reaching out 1 mile would be ravaged by fires and radiation.
---
### Author:  [@Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2004, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-blast-maps-type-in-your-zip-code/276266/23 "2004-11-23T19:15:05Z")
Don’t forget they’re using a 10 kT bomb, not one of the MT ones they made movie of the week about in the 80’s. We’re dealing with Nagasaki style weapons.
---
### Author:  [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2004, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-blast-maps-type-in-your-zip-code/276266/24 "2004-11-23T19:45:26Z")
Hah!
I’m safe!
Neener, neener neener!
My family and friends, however, would probably be toast.
---
### Author:  [@Uncommon\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncommon_Sense)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2004, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-blast-maps-type-in-your-zip-code/276266/25 "2004-11-23T19:48:37Z")
Toasted.
My last residence included. And almost the one before that.
---
### Author:  [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2004, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-blast-maps-type-in-your-zip-code/276266/26 "2004-11-23T20:02:02Z")
All I get is a blank map with a colorful bullseye in th emiddle. I, um, live in the middle of nowhere.
---
### Author:  [@Jenaroph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenaroph)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2004, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-blast-maps-type-in-your-zip-code/276266/27 "2004-11-23T20:05:09Z")
I’m like, _this close_ to being toast.
My granparents live on a barrier island with one bridge. They wouldn’t be toast, but in order to leave the island, they’d have to either leave by boat, or drive through the blast zone to get to the bridge, if it still existed.
---
### Author:  [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2004, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-blast-maps-type-in-your-zip-code/276266/28 "2004-11-23T20:17:09Z")
> [@dwc1970](#):
>
> I’d like to know how the precise locations based on zip codes is determined anyway.
Typically, it’s the centroid - the theoretical point on which your zip code polygon would balance.
---
### Author:  [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2004, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-blast-maps-type-in-your-zip-code/276266/29 "2004-11-23T22:18:54Z")
Whew! Missed my house by a good mile.
A damned shame about the new section of the parkway, though.
---
### Author:  [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2004, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-blast-maps-type-in-your-zip-code/276266/30 "2004-11-23T22:19:03Z")
> [@Grey](#):
>
> Don’t forget they’re using a 10 kT bomb, not one of the MT ones they made movie of the week about in the 80’s. We’re dealing with Nagasaki style weapons.
Exactly. This isn’t what happens if Russia or China do their damndest to take us out. This is what happens if Al Qaeda or the IRA or the SLA or PETA or the Women’s Interntional Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell or whoever gets their hands on enough fissionable uranium and makes a little fission bomb to shake us up with.
---
### Author:  [@Lsura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lsura)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2004, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-blast-maps-type-in-your-zip-code/276266/31 "2004-11-23T23:19:05Z")
Well, based on my home and work zip codes…I’d be a goner no matter where I was.
For my home ZIP code, I’m either in the red or on the edge of the red (it doesn’t actually show my road, but one relatively close). For my work ZIP code, it’s basically right where I am.
---
### Author:  [@percypercy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/percypercy)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2004, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-blast-maps-type-in-your-zip-code/276266/32 "2004-11-23T23:27:47Z")
I’m in the green. So that makes me dead. My aunt, a few miles north will be living large and laughing at our wreckage. Well, probably not laughing.
-Lil
---
### Author:  [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2004, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-blast-maps-type-in-your-zip-code/276266/33 "2004-11-23T23:39:11Z")
Ravaged by radiation and fire.
Damn my wife! If she had agreed to the split-level instead of holding out for the ranch-style two blocks away, we would be safe.
---
### Author:  [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2004, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-blast-maps-type-in-your-zip-code/276266/34 "2004-11-24T00:45:30Z")
I’ve always known everywhere I’ve lived was within the “red zone” of any likely nuclear blast. For fifteen years or so my folks and I have been almost in sight, in winter, of the largest basic training base in the country. I feel okay about that, honestly - I’d rather be vaporized than die of cancer.
---
### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2004, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-blast-maps-type-in-your-zip-code/276266/35 "2004-11-24T00:52:11Z")
If I am at work and they nuke my house, I’m good. Vice versa is good as well, of course. With my luck, they’ll try to take out the only decent Italian restaurant in town, and get me wherever I am! :eek:
---
### Author:  [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2004, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-blast-maps-type-in-your-zip-code/276266/36 "2004-11-24T03:03:37Z")
> [@bouv](#):
>
> Doesn’t work for me. ☹
>
> The little window pops up (after a much longer loading time than I would expect.) When i type in my zipcode, it says something to the effect of “the previous reques(s) were not received.”
>
> Of course, being in the middle of the Adirondacks, I’m fairly certain on one is planning on blowing me up.
They’re targeting Ray Brook – pick off the APA, and cover Saranac and Placid in one blast, of course!
---
### Author:  [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2004, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-blast-maps-type-in-your-zip-code/276266/37 "2004-11-24T07:22:47Z")
There’s another [Nuclear Weapons Effects Calculator](http://www.stardestroyer.net/Empire/Science/Nuke.html)…it doesn’t do a map-overlay (which didn’t work for me, either) but you _can_ adjust the yield to your liking.
Good news! If a full scale Tsar Bomba goes off near the nearest first strike target, I’m probably just far away enough not to be instantly burned to death! (The flames would reach me within minutes, though. But the flash _would_ likely have been bright enough to blind me and/or give me a first degree burn.
---
### Author:  [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2004, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-blast-maps-type-in-your-zip-code/276266/38 "2004-11-24T07:35:21Z")
Apparently, if one hits square in the middle of my area code, I’ll be fine. Whew.
> [@WhyNot](#):
>
> Honestly, I thought it would be far worse than that. I was under the impression that we’d all be glowing mutants dying of leukemia. According to this site, if something like the Sears Tower suffers a direct hit, the damage won’t even reach to DePaul University on Fullerton. Still…y’know…tragic, but hardly something that will destroy western civilization as we know it.
Check out [Cecil’s column on the subject.](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/030829.html)
---
### Author:  [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2004, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-blast-maps-type-in-your-zip-code/276266/39 "2004-11-24T21:35:12Z")
> [@vibrotronica](#):
>
> Weird! When I gave it my zip code, ground zero was pretty much right on top of my house!
Yeah, that’s what it did for me. The edge of the red circle was right over my neighborhood. Is it showing a nuclear blast centered in the middle of your zip code?
[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-blast-maps-type-in-your-zip-code/276266.md?page=1)