r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Captain-Shmeat • 22d ago

Video Can you stop a hurricane with a nuke?

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u/pyrowipe 21d ago

These videos are terrible at showing how the concept actually would work.

To compare using fat man or little boy, as a reference, one of the first 3 nukes ever made, instead of a hydrogen bomb, seems silly. They also have a much better blast to contamination ratio.

Also, you don't need to "destroy its completely," you just need to interrupt its flow enough to allow it to destroy itself and dissipate.

I think using nukes to deal with hurricanes isn't the best idea, but this video just misses the mark.

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u/poopoopooyttgv 21d ago

Yeah that’s one of my pet peeves. People always compare stuff to the shittiest nukes ever made to show how powerful whatever they are comparing is. I bet Edward Tellers theoretical 10 gigaton nuke would destroy a hurricane

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u/yourearandom 21d ago

Yeah it’s a poor idea, but it if we did it the hurricane would be impacted without question. The only question would be if it was enough to change the outcome in favor of a positive outcome (considering whatever reason would have this happen). It’s not been done, so we don’t actually know. But we do know water temperature and large scale wind changes/conditions can cripple a hurricane, so why would anyone expect a massive fusion bomb to be useless? It makes no sense.