# Nuke the Damned Hurricanes! **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 17, 2000, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuke-the-damned-hurricanes/37208 "2000-10-17T01:48:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Stupendous\_man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a8b319/32.png) [@Stupendous\_man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stupendous_man)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2000, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuke-the-damned-hurricanes/37208/1 "2000-10-17T01:48:34Z")
Ok, something I’ve been wondering about lately… No, really! Could the world’s currenly most powerful nuke bomb dissipate a hurricane of any category? I bet it would. I say, Nuke the Storms! ---
**Author:** ![Alphagene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Alphagene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alphagene)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2000, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuke-the-damned-hurricanes/37208/2 "2000-10-17T02:01:02Z")
We’ll get right on that, as soon as we finish blasting apart [tornados with missiles](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=5874). ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2000, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuke-the-damned-hurricanes/37208/3 "2000-10-17T02:03:30Z")
So someone else wants to have thermonuclear devices flying around inconviencing the passers-by. Aren’t cows bad enough? Your answer is no. A hurricane wouldn’t even notice a bomb exploding in it. ---
**Author:** ![theuglytruth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@theuglytruth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/theuglytruth)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2000, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuke-the-damned-hurricanes/37208/4 "2000-10-17T03:03:10Z")
I know I heard this somewhere, but doesn’t ahurricane possess as much force as something like 100,000 Hiroshima A-bombs or some stat like that? I’m sure one of the Dopers can track it down. Therefore, I say a hurricane can open a can of whoop-ass on a nuke anyday. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2000, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuke-the-damned-hurricanes/37208/5 "2000-10-17T03:21:58Z")
I’m curious as to what effect someone would expect a large bomb to have on a hurricane. The hurricane is basically a lot of moist air moving in a circle 10 to 100 miles wide. The bomb explodes (in the eye?) and generates a lot of heat and moves air from the eye into the swirling cyclone, then the collapsing fireball sucks some of the air back into the eye. What is supposed to be the effect on the large masses of moist air just out of reach of the fireball? Actually, given that hurricanes are driven by warm, moist air, setting off a large heat generator over the water in its midst seems like a good way to _feed_ a hurricane, not destroy one. (And I’m sure that the people living down range will be delighted to have atomic radiation added to their newly charged storm.) ---
**Author:** ![Sofa\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2000, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuke-the-damned-hurricanes/37208/6 "2000-10-17T03:32:05Z")
The search engine is not providing me with the thread, but this has come up before. Some scientist is suing–or has sued–the feds because he feels his idea to nuke hurricanes was unduly cashiered by NOAA, or whomever. I think this also appeared in Chuck Shephard’s [_News of the Weird_](http://www.newsoftheweird.com) this year, but if it did, he is using Cecil’s search string. ---
**Author:** ![edwino](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@edwino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/edwino)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2000, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuke-the-damned-hurricanes/37208/7 "2000-10-17T03:45:21Z")
I thought you could actually just cloud seed one side of a hurricane to get it to lessen in intensity (“raining out” the storm). I think that the Navy was doing this in the 60s, but South America, Cuba, Mexico, and the Caribbean made them stop because they thought that the Navy would steer the hurricanes into them. UL? ---
**Author:** ![matt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@matt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2000, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuke-the-damned-hurricanes/37208/8 "2000-10-17T07:50:56Z")
What you’ve got to do is find the butterfly which caused the hurricane and nuke it. ---
**Author:** ![funneefarmer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/9fc348/32.png) [@funneefarmer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/funneefarmer)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2000, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuke-the-damned-hurricanes/37208/9 "2000-10-17T11:32:13Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by tomndebb \* > \*\* > Actually, given that hurricanes are driven by warm, moist air, setting off a large heat generator over the water in its midst seems like a good way to _feed_ a hurricane, not destroy one. (And I’m sure that the people living down range will be delighted to have atomic radiation added to their newly charged storm.) \*\* Seemed like I just saw a good representation in National Geographic about how these storms are fed just as much by the warm water below them. They stir up huge amounts of water as they travel over head. The closer the cold water is to the surface of the water the more likely that the hurricane will die out. The deeper the layer of warm water on top goes the more likely the hurricane is to strengthen. The following is just conjecture but if you could plant bombs under water in front of the storm path that would effectively stir up enough cold water from the depths to the surface it would seem that you could effectively slow down the hurricane to a simple depression. I am of course ignoring radiation but we’re not talking about atmospheric explosion at any rate. ---
**Author:** ![Tymp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Tymp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tymp)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2000, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuke-the-damned-hurricanes/37208/10 "2000-10-17T14:29:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by matt \* > \*\*What you’ve got to do is find the butterfly which caused the hurricane and nuke it. \*\* 😃 Oooh! Looks like somebody just got added to my list . . . ---
**Author:** ![Freyr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freyr/32/5763_2.png) [@Freyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freyr)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2000, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuke-the-damned-hurricanes/37208/11 "2000-10-17T21:23:42Z")
I admit my understanding of this is limited, but from what I’ve read, hurricanes derive their power from heat; essentially the heat given off by water vapor as it changes into liquid. One of the odd physical properties of water is a rather high specific heat. So, no, a thermo-nuclear bomb wouldn’t destroy a hurricane, neither would several going off at once. Even if it did succeed in slowing it down or disappating a small tropical storm or tropical depression, what would you do about the radioactive fall-out? **Newscaster:** Good news from government scientists; the use of nuclear bombs to stop hurricanes have been proven! Several old warheads were used against hurricane Mabel and effectively disappated the storm. **Newscaster:** And on a more tragic note, the entire state of Florida is now radioactive. ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2000, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuke-the-damned-hurricanes/37208/12 "2000-10-18T14:46:53Z")
Wait a moment, if you nuked a hurricane, you’d have fallout flying everywhere. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2000, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuke-the-damned-hurricanes/37208/13 "2000-10-18T16:41:40Z")
> [@](#): > > I say, Nuke the Storms! Believe it or not, the Government (NOAA?) said the same thing some 50 years ago. > [@](#): > > Wait a moment, if you nuked a hurricane, you’d have fallout flying everywhere. Took 'em a while, but the same Goverment people figured this out, which is why the idea was never tried. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2000, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuke-the-damned-hurricanes/37208/14 "2000-10-18T17:03:14Z")
Dang, asteroids, volcanos, now hurricanes… You folks are bound and determined to nuke something, aren’t you? How 'bout the drain in my kitchen sink, then? Bastard’s stopped up tighter ‘n’ Pat Robertson’s sphincter… ---
**Author:** ![Stupendous\_man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a8b319/32.png) [@Stupendous\_man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stupendous_man)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2000, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuke-the-damned-hurricanes/37208/15 "2000-10-22T18:53:19Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Rocket88 \* > \*\*Dang, asteroids, volcanos, now hurricanes… > > You folks are bound and determined to nuke something, aren’t you? > > How 'bout the drain in my kitchen sink, then? Bastard’s stopped up tighter ‘n’ Pat Robertson’s sphincter… \*\* Fill a 2-liter Plastic Soda bottle with water, invert it into the drain, and give it a good hard squeeze. Nothing clears a stopped-up drain faster. Chemical free too!