According to Business Insider, even the Tsar Bomba (with a yield of 50 megatons) – the largest nuclear bomb ever detonated by Russia – would not be able to stop a hurricane.
In the past, the United States has recorded some “crazy” ideas to prevent hurricanes. However, the energy that a mature hurricane can release is “extraordinarily terrifying” and almost nothing can stop it.
Specifically, in 2019, American media reported that Donald Trump – then the President of the United States – repeatedly suggested to national security officials to consider using nuclear bombs to prevent hurricanes from making landfall in the U.S.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump once proposed using nuclear weapons to prevent hurricanes from hitting the U.S. (Photo: RAMMB)
“Why don’t we drop nuclear bombs on hurricanes?” Trump questioned during a White House meeting on hurricane prevention.
According to Axios, at that time, Trump was supporting the idea of using nuclear weapons to prevent tropical storms from hitting the southeastern United States.
Axios’ sources stated that Trump told senior U.S. officials something like: “A hurricane is starting to form off the coast of Africa. As it moves across the Atlantic, let’s throw a bomb into the eye of the hurricane and break it up. Why can’t we do that?”
According to Business Insider, the idea proposed by Trump had been mentioned before. In the late 1950s, a scientist came up with the initiative to use nuclear explosions to “change the direction and intensity of hurricanes.”
However, a 2014 report by hurricane researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) dismissed this idea. According to NOAA, the initiative to break up super hurricanes using nuclear bombs is “not feasible,” as the United States does not possess bombs with sufficient yield to achieve that. Furthermore, explosions would not be able to change the surrounding air pressure in an instant.
How are hurricanes formed?
Business Insider reports that hurricanes are large low-pressure systems with wind speeds of up to 119 km/h.
The tropical storms threatening to strike the U.S. are formed over warm waters in the Atlantic Ocean. As humidity increases, this region releases energy, creating thunderstorms. As many thunderstorms are generated, spiral winds rise and begin to fan out, creating a vortex.
At the same time, as the winds rise, a low-pressure area forms over the ocean surface, which helps nourish the hurricane’s swirling shape. If any part of this weather cycle dissipates, the hurricane will lose strength and disintegrate.
Perhaps for this reason, in 1959, Jack Reed – a meteorologist at Sandia National Laboratories – mentioned the possibility of breaking hurricane-forming conditions using nuclear weapons.
Mr. Reed proposed using submarines to launch nuclear weapons into the eye of the hurricane. (Photo: YT).
Reed hypothesized that nuclear explosions could prevent the hurricane by pushing warm air up and out of the hurricane’s eye, allowing cooler air to take its place.
According to Reed, this would eliminate the low air pressure that fuels the hurricane, ultimately weakening it.
To realize the idea of deploying nuclear weapons into the hurricane’s eye, Reed proposed two methods: air dropping or launching from submarines. Among these, launching from submarines was considered the most feasible option.
“A submarine could penetrate the eye of the hurricane underwater and launch the missile device before diving to a safe depth,” Reed stated.
However, according to NOAA, Reed’s idea has at least two significant problems.
Hurricanes release terrifying energy
Business Insider cites NOAA reports stating that every 20 minutes, a mature hurricane can release thermal energy ranging from 5×1013 to 20×1013 watts and only under 10% of this thermal energy is converted into the mechanical energy of the wind.
The amount of heat emitted by a hurricane would be equivalent to a 10-megaton nuclear bomb exploding every 20 minutes. This explosive power is equivalent to 666 “Little Boy” bombs (15 kilotons) that the U.S. dropped on Hiroshima, Japan in 1945.
To cope with the immense energy of a hurricane, the U.S. would need to drop nearly 2,000 “Little Boy” bombs into the eye of the hurricane for every hour until the hurricane weakens.
Notably, even the Tsar Bomba (with a yield of 50 megatons) – the largest nuclear bomb in the world detonated by Russia in the Arctic Ocean in 1961 – would not be strong enough to stop a hurricane.
Even the Tsar Bomba is not powerful enough to stop hurricanes. (Photo: Wiki).
Moreover, when the high-pressure wave from the nuclear explosion begins to move outward, the air pressure surrounding the hurricane will quickly return to its previous low-pressure state, while the shock wave generated by the nuclear weapon travels faster than the speed of sound.
Therefore, if nuclear detonations cannot be continuously triggered in the eye of the hurricane, we cannot dissipate the low-pressure air flow that helps sustain the hurricane.
In simple terms, to reduce a Category 5 hurricane like Katrina (with winds at 281 km/h) to a Category 2 hurricane (with winds at 160 km/h), we would need to inject over half a billion cubic meters of air into the hurricane (assuming the eye diameter is 40 km). A single nuclear bomb is not enough to do that.
Radiation dust would spread
NOAA’s report also warned that if the U.S. used nuclear weapons, radiation dust would spread beyond the hurricane’s reach.
“This approach does not take into account the issue of released radiation dust. The radiation dust would move quickly with the wind, affecting areas on land and causing a series of catastrophic consequences for the environment,” the NOAA authors wrote.
For humans, excessive exposure to radiation dust in a short period can destroy cells in the body.
Land contaminated with radiation dust would also be unusable, even for habitation. After the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded in 1986 and released toxic radiation dust into the air, residents in the area were forced to relocate.
If the U.S. attempts to break up a hurricane with nuclear means, radiation dust could even spread to Caribbean island nations or states bordering the Gulf of Mexico.
“This is truly not a good idea,” NOAA concluded.
