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Every year, about half a dozen hurricanes
reach the United States.
With effects
ranging from heavy winds and some flooding
to the complete decimation of communities,
destroying homes and taking lives.
Instead of bracing for impact
with our sandbags and survival kits,
what if hurricanes never hit land at all?
What if we could stop these hurricanes
by nuking them?
But first, what exactly are hurricanes?
They're massive storms
that form over warm ocean water
near the equator.
Hurricanes are tropical storms,
the water they form over
needs to be above 26°C (79°F) for them to work.
This warm water creates humid air,
which then gets thrust upwards by tropical winds
to create storm clouds.
Lighter winds outside the clouds
steer them and help them grow.
This cycle keeps happening
until the storm has winds of at least 119 km/h (74 mph).
At that point, it's called a hurricane.
They're usually about 160 km (100 miles) in diameter
and can be nearly as large as the state of Texas.
Oh yeah, and did we mention these things can last for days?
You definitely don't want this coming to your home, so
let's nuke it!
Believe it or not,
the idea of nuking hurricanes isn't new.
It's been proposed for decades,
dating back to the 1950s.
A submarine would travel underwater
to the below of the eye of the storm.
Once there,
the sub would launch the nuclear bomb,
creating an explosion intended to blast out all the hot air
and bring in cold air, which is denser.
The cold air would slow down the wind and stop the hurricane.
Okay.
We have our nuke and are ready to launch it.
There it goes!
And--
well, nothing happened.
The hurricane is still there.
That can't be good.
The reason nothing would happen
is because of the amount of energy a hurricane produces.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,
the heat released from a hurricane
is equal to a 10-megaton nuclear bomb
exploding every 20 minutes.
In 1990,
all of humanity used 20% less energy than a single hurricane produces.
So, the average bombs of today would hardly make a dent on a hurricane.
Not only that,
the hurricane would carry all that radiation,
plutonium and
other civilization-destroying materials
from the air down to the land.
As if a regular hurricane wasn't bad enough,
we'd now have a radioactive one.
As it moved across America,
it would destroy cities with its wind and water,
while also dumping radiation on them.
Okay, let's try this again.
This time we'll use an even bigger bomb.
And we mean really big.
To have enough energy and force to stop a hurricane,
you'd need more than 100 atomic bombs.
But to keep it simple, let's pack all that power into one giant bomb.
If we released such a massive bomb,
it would surely stop the most epic of hurricanes.
But once the dust settles,
you'd quickly realize
that you destroyed most of the Earth in the process
So whichever way you attempt it,
nuking a hurricane is not a good idea.
And unfortunately, the number of hurricanes continues to increase.
Researchers say that the warming of the oceans, due to climate change,
is a reason why hurricanes are getting stronger and more frequent.
And no, we can't nuke that problem either.
So fine, nuking a hurricane isn't a good idea.
In addition to hurricanes
people have talked about nuking asteroids
and oil spills to stop them from spreading.
Man, what's with humans and nuking stuff?
Let's save those stories for another WHAT IF.