North Korea has nuclear weapons, Russia is rapidly modernizing its nuclear arsenal, and there’s a chance Washington won’t renew it’s denuclearization agreements with Moscow. The Doomsday Clock is closer to midnight than it’s been since the Cold War and everyone is wondering—just how dead would I be if a nuclear weapon hit my town or city?
It’s a pressing question in our modern era of refreshed nuclear anxiety. Well, now there’s a nuke map tool that’s pretty and fits your busy schedule. Outrider’s interactive nuclear blast map allows users to quickly put in their data and get a nice map of the fireball, shockwave, radioactive ring, and heat blast.
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It’s got options too. A handy drop down allows users to pick various nukes to see their effects—including the North Korean Hwasong-14—and see the difference between a surface detonation and an air burst. A surface blast greater radioactive fallout while an air burst would cover a wider geographic area.
Outrider’s map is a sequel, of sorts, to Alex Wellerstein’s NUKEMAP, a stripped down and less graphically impressive website that does the same thing. Ground Zero is another tool that does something similar using Google Maps. Each of the tools is useful, but Outrider’s is the most graphically impressive and most enjoyable to use. Which is a twisted way to look at nuclear blast planning programs, I know, but when it comes to nuclear armaggeddon, you take your jollies where you can.
