World War 3: Here is what would happen if a nuclear bomb dropped on Washington D.C. during WW3

It was announced that it would be remaining at 100 seconds to midnight for 2022.

This is the closest to midnight the clock 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.

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

Previously 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 Washington D.C. 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.

SEE ALSO: Here's what would happen if a nuclear bomb was dropped on Portsmouth in event of WW3

So if the ‘Little Boy’ 15 kiloton bomb, which was dropped by the US on the Japanese city of Hiroshima in WW2, fell on Washington D.C. it is estimated that 120,550 people would die and another 168,800 would be 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 800kt Topol nuke – currently the largest in the Russian arsenal – was used on the US capital it would be much more devastating.

With an estimated 412,600 fatalities and an estimated 374,610 people injured.

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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