Visualizing a Nuclear Bomb’s Impact on a Michigan City

What would happen in a nuclear bomb were dropped on a major Michigan city?

Let's be honest, you've more than likely thought about this at one time or another. Whether you're preparing for Skynet to become self-aware, a zombie apocalypse or the Lions winning the Super Bowl, the thought has probably popped into your head at one point.

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After seeing a sign for a fallout shelter in my downtown area, I started to wonder if there were any other shelters that were in operation should such a scenario happen. While looking to see where other fallout shelters might be, I came across a "nuke map." This particular website, nuclearsecrecy.com, lets you see what would happen if a nuclear bomb were dropped on a certain area.

The nuke map itself is pretty interesting and lets you pick a bunch of different parameters of a nuclear bomb being detonated in a particular area. You can pick between location, yield, height of burst, casualties, radioactive fallout, and more.

For the purposes of this article and whether or not you would be safe if a nuke dropped somewhere in Michigan, I used the following parameters and guidelines. The yield of the nuke is 1.2 megatons, which is the equivalent of the B-83, the largest bomb in the current United States arsenal. I also set the height of burst to be from the surface and selected the predicted radioactive fallout.

As I am not a scientist, the radioactive fallout would vary. The prevailing winds in Michigan run predominantly from west to east and that is what the photos show. In the photos below, you can see what would actually happen under these conditions in eight different cities across Michigan. To explore more and see what other nuclear bombs could do, click here. I have also included a key for what the circles mean in the photo.

Source: Nuclearsecrecy.com