What would happen if you exploded a nuclear bomb in the eye of a hurricane? Would the storm cell be immediately vaporized?—Rupert Bainbridge (and hundreds of others)
This question gets submitted a lot.
It turns out the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration—the agency which runs the National Hurricane Center—gets it a lot, too. In fact, they’re asked about it so often that they’ve published a response.
I recommend you read the whole thing, but I think the last sentence of the first paragraph says it all:
“Needless to say, this is not a good idea.”
It makes me happy that an arm of the US government has, in some official capacity, issued an opinion on the subject of firing nuclear missiles into hurricanes.
Hey kids! Unfortunately Mr. Science couldn’t make it today, so we’ll have to make do with Randall Munroe, a guy with a degree in physics, better known as the creator of xkcd.
