World War 3: Here's what would happen if a nuclear bomb dropped on New York City during WW3

It is at 100 seconds to midnight for the second year in the row – which is the closest to midnight it has ever been.

The countdown - a metaphor for global collapse - took into account dangerous threats posed by nuclear weapons, climate change, disruptive technologies and COVID-19, Sky News reports.

While nuclear war remains extremely unlikely – it could have a devastating impact.

Earlier this year The News revealed that Portsmouth was one of the key Russian targets during the cold war along with many other cities across this country.

But what about targets in America – could WW3 see New York City and other major cities targeted by missiles.

NUKEMAP calculates the predicted number of fatalities and injuries that would be caused - based on the size of a the bomb dropped on the city – for this story we have selected the option of the bomb exploding as an airblast.

So if the ‘Little Boy’ 15 kiloton bomb, which was dropped by the US on the Japanese city of Hiroshima in WW2, fell on Manhattan it is estimated that 263,560 would be killed and 512,000 injured.

The fireball would have a radius of 180m, the air blast radius - which would severely damage buildings – would be 340m and the radiation radius – where death rates would be between 50% and 90% - would be 1.2km.

However the ‘Little Boy' hasn’t been used since WW2, so if a 350kt W-78 nuke – currently the largest option on NUKEMAP – was used on New York City it would be much more devastating.

SEE MORE: Here's what would happen if a nuclear bomb was dropped on London in World War 3

With an estimated 1,114,230 fatalities and an estimated 2,146,570 people injured.

The fireball radius would be 0.63km, the air blast radius - which would severely damage buildings – would be 4.95km, the thermal radiation radius – causing third degree burns, scaring, disablement, and can require amputation - would be 7.67km.

All of this is hypothetical and the risk of a nuclear bomb falling on New York City or anywhere in the World is extremely low.

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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