Nuke Map: Nuclear Bomb Simulator for Any City

What is the Nuke Blast Simulator?

Nuke Blast Simulator is a free, interactive online tool that lets you visualize the effects of nuclear weapons on any city or location worldwide. Click anywhere on the map above to detonate one of 29 historical and modern nuclear weapons — from the 15-kiloton Little Boy that destroyed Hiroshima to the 50-megaton Tsar Bomba, the largest nuclear weapon ever tested.

The simulator instantly displays color-coded zones for the fireball, severe blast (20 psi), moderate blast (5 psi), light blast (1 psi), and thermal radiation burn radii — all for an air burst at optimum height, using scaling-law formulas from The Effects of Nuclear Weapons(Glasstone & Dolan, 1977) and the published effects scaling table. ^{[1, 2]} Casualty and fallout figures are not shown pending a verified model.

Want every yield at a glance? The nuclear blast radius calculator and chart lists every effect ring from 1 kt to 50 Mt in miles and kilometers.

The tool is an educational resource for understanding the physical scale of nuclear weapon effects. It is free, requires no signup, and never stores your simulations.

How to Use the Nuke Map

Select a weapon from the dropdown — Tsar Bomba, Little Boy, Castle Bravo, modern warheads, or a custom yield.
Click anywhere on the map to choose your detonation point. Pan and zoom freely; the map covers the entire planet.
Watch the blast zones appear. Yellow is the fireball, red is severe blast, orange is moderate blast, gray is light blast, magenta and pink are thermal burn radii.
Read the effect radii in the results panel — each zone's radius for an air burst at optimum height.

Read the full step-by-step guide →

Featured Nuclear Weapons

The Weapons Database covers 29 historical and current nuclear weapons and tests. Click any weapon below to see its detailed blast-radius profile, historical context, and a one-click simulator preset.

Tsar Bomba

USSR · 1961 · 50 Mt

Largest nuclear weapon ever tested

Source ^[3]

Castle Bravo

USA · 1954 · 15 Mt

Most powerful US nuclear test

Source ^[4]

Source ^[4]

Source ^[4]

Most powerful US weapon still in the stockpile (retirement pending)

Source ^{[5, 6]}

W88

USA · 1988 · 455 kt

Modern SLBM warhead

Source ^{[5, 6]}

Browse the full Weapons Database (29 nuclear weapons) →

Featured Cities

Pre-computed nuclear blast effect radii for major world cities.

New York

USA · 8.6M people

Population source ^{[7, 8]}

Los Angeles

USA · 3.9M people

Population source ^{[7, 9]}

Chicago

USA · 2.7M people

Population source ^{[7, 10, 11]}

Houston

USA · 2.4M people

Population source ^{[7, 12]}

San Francisco

USA · 0.8M people

Population source ^[13]

Washington DC

USA · 0.7M people

Population source ^[14]

Vancouver

Canada · 0.7M people

Population source ^[15]

Boston

USA · 0.7M people

Population source ^[16]

Browse all 100 cities →

Weapon Comparisons

Head-to-head comparisons of nuclear weapons, side-by-side. Yields, blast and thermal radii, and which is bigger.

Tsar Bomba vs Castle Bravo

50 Mt vs 15 Mt

Tsar Bomba vs Little Boy

50 Mt vs 15 kt

Little Boy vs Fat Man

15 kt vs 21 kt

B83 vs Tsar Bomba

1.2 Mt vs 50 Mt

Little Boy vs MOAB (Mother of All Bombs)

15 kt vs 0.011 kt

Browse all weapon comparisons →

From the Blog

Long-form articles on nuclear weapon physics, history, doctrine, and effects.

7 min read

EMP: How a High-Altitude Nuclear Burst Could Disable a Continent

A single nuclear burst about 200 miles (320 km) above the central United States could expose almost the entire country, plus parts of Canada and Mexico, to EMP. Here is how the effect works and how seriously experts take the threat.

8 min read

Nuclear Winter: How a Regional War Could Cool the Earth

A 1980s climate hypothesis turned out to be more robust than originally thought — and recent modeling shows that even a regional nuclear war could cause global crop failures.

9 min read

How Many People Died in Hiroshima and Nagasaki?

About 140,000 people died in Hiroshima and more than 70,000 in Nagasaki by the end of 1945. The sourced death tolls, the bombings, why the cities were chosen, and the survivors today.

8 min read

Tsar Bomba: The Largest Nuclear Test Ever

Tsar Bomba, the 50-megaton Soviet test of 30 October 1961, was the largest nuclear explosion ever. The flash, the mushroom cloud, the bomb, where it was tested and the 100-megaton design behind it, every figure cited.

Read all articles →

Glossary

50 defined terms covering nuclear weapon effects, physics, doctrine, and arms control. Each term has a one-sentence answer and an expanded explanation.

Fallout

Radioactive material thrown into the atmosphere by a surface-burst nuclear detonation, which then settles back to earth over hours to weeks.

Acute Radiation Syndrome

The constellation of medical symptoms following a high dose of ionizing radiation, including nausea, immune-system failure, hemorrhage, and death.

Hydrogen Bomb

A nuclear weapon that derives most of its energy from nuclear fusion of hydrogen isotopes, ignited by a fission primary stage.

MIRV

Multiple Independently-targetable Reentry Vehicle — a single missile carrying several warheads, each able to strike a different target.

ICBM (Intercontinental Ballistic Missile)

A long-range ballistic missile (range > 5,500 km) designed to deliver nuclear warheads between continents.

SLBM (Submarine-Launched Ballistic Missile)

A ballistic missile launched from a submerged submarine, providing a survivable second-strike nuclear capability.

Browse the full glossary →

Understanding Nuclear Blast Effects

Fireball

A sphere of extremely hot gas forms. At the first instant it reaches tens of millions of degrees, similar to the center of the Sun. ^[17]

Air Blast (Overpressure)

A shock wave radiates outward faster than the speed of sound.^[18] The 20 psi zone levels reinforced-concrete structures and the 5 psi zone destroys most residential buildings;^[20] at 1 psi, windows shatter and flying glass injures people.^[19] These radii scale with the cube root of yield.^[18]

Thermal Radiation

Intense light and infrared radiation cause burns and ignite fires far beyond the blast zone. 3rd-degree burns reach out to about 4.8 km from a 100 kt air burst and about 12 km from 1 Mt. ^{[1, 2]}

Fallout

Surface bursts can spread heavy radioactive fallout hundreds of kilometers downwind; fallout from the Castle Bravo test contaminated an area more than 530 km long.^[21] Hiroshima and Nagasaki were air bursts, and fallout injuries there were essentially absent.^[17]

Read the full scientific methodology →

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Nuke Blast Simulator?

Nuke Blast Simulator is a free interactive web tool that visualizes the effects of nuclear weapons on any location worldwide. Pick from the database of historical and modern nuclear weapons (or set a custom yield), click anywhere on the map, and see the fireball, blast overpressure zones, and thermal radiation burn radii, computed from published scaling laws for an air burst at optimum height.

Is the Nuke Blast Simulator free to use?

Yes. The simulator is free, needs no account, and does not store your simulations. Detonations are computed in your browser, so your chosen weapon and coordinates stay in the page. Google Analytics receives only the page path, never the query string that holds them (Consent Mode; analytics is denied by default in Europe), and Mapbox serves the map tiles. See the Privacy page for details.

How accurate is the nuclear blast simulator?

The radii come from the scaling laws in "The Effects of Nuclear Weapons" (Glasstone & Dolan, 1977) and a published scaling-law table (Wikipedia, "Effects of nuclear explosions"). Results are educational approximations: real effects depend on terrain, weather, building construction and burst height, which the simulator idealizes.^{[1, 2]}

Which nuclear weapons can I simulate?

The picker includes Little Boy (Hiroshima, 15 kt), Fat Man (Nagasaki, 21 kt), the Soviet Tsar Bomba (50 Mt, the largest test ever), Castle Bravo (15 Mt, the largest US test), Ivy Mike (the first full-scale hydrogen bomb test) and modern strategic warheads (W88, W76, B61, B83). You can also set any custom yield from 1 to 100,000 kilotons. The 14 conventional bombs have reference pages only and are excluded from the simulator.^{[4, 3, 22]}

What is the difference between an air burst and a surface burst?

An air burst detonates above the ground at optimal altitude, maximizing the area affected by blast and thermal radiation while producing little local fallout. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were both air bursts. A surface burst detonates at ground level; for most overpressures its blast reaches less far than an air burst at the optimum height, and it produces heavy local fallout.^{[17, 18, 21]}

Can I share my nuclear blast simulation?

Yes. After running a simulation, the share button copies a URL that re-creates the same scenario when opened. It encodes the weapon, latitude, and longitude — useful for educators, journalists, and researchers.

See the full FAQ for more in-depth questions about nuclear weapon effects.

Ready to Simulate?

Scroll back to the top — pick a weapon, click a city, see the impact.

🎯 Back to the Simulator

Nuke Map — Nuclear Bomb Simulator

What is the Nuke Blast Simulator?

How to Use the Nuke Map

Featured Nuclear Weapons

Featured Cities

Weapon Comparisons

From the Blog

Glossary

Understanding Nuclear Blast Effects

Fireball

Air Blast (Overpressure)

Thermal Radiation

Fallout

Frequently Asked Questions

Ready to Simulate?

Sources