The Tribune

By AVA TURNQUEST

Tribune Chief Reporter

aturnquest@tribunemedia.net

A LEADING scientific agency yesterday warned against the use of nuclear weapons to destroy hurricanes.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) shot down the idea as reports circulated American President Donald Trump had floated the possibility past US national security officials.

Mr Trump has reportedly denied the claim but the agency posted a statement on its FAQs page underscoring the “devastating” impact of such an attempt.

It comes as Tropical Storm Dorian threatens to strengthen into a hurricane as it moves over the Atlantic.

“During each hurricane season, there always appear suggestions that one should simply use nuclear weapons to try and destroy the storms,” the NOAA statement read.

“Apart from the fact that this might not even alter the storm, this approach neglects the problem that the released radioactive fallout would fairly quickly move with the tradewinds to affect land areas and cause devastating environmental problems. Needless to say, this is not a good idea.”

The NOAA explained the main difficulty with using explosives to modify hurricanes is the amount of energy required - which would render this technique ineffective.

The heat release of a fully developed hurricane is equivalent to a 10-megaton nuclear bomb exploding every 20 minutes, according to the scientific agency. It noted the 1993 World Almanac found the entire human race used energy at a rate less than 20 percent of the power of a hurricane.

“Attacking weak tropical waves or depressions before they have a chance to grow into hurricanes isn’t promising either,” the NOAA statement continued.

“About 80 of these disturbances form every year in the Atlantic basin, but only about five become hurricanes in a typical year. There is no way to tell in advance which ones will develop. If the energy released in a tropical disturbance were only 10 percent of that released in a hurricane, it’s still a lot of power, so that the hurricane police would need to dim the whole world’s lights many times a year.”