• Question: What is nuclear winter?

    Asked by devan to Bob, Katie, Nisha, Sallie, Vee on 28 Jun 2012.
    • Photo: Sallie Baxendale

      Sallie Baxendale answered on 28 Jun 2012:

      A nuclear winter is an idea – its a prediction of what would happen to the planet if we had a big nuclear war. Scientists think that loads of nuclear bombs all going off within a short space of time would create cold weather and reduced sunlight for months or even years, especially over cities, where large amounts of ash would be suspended into the Earth’s stratosphere. Hopefully we will never find out if these predictions are true.

      Similar effects can be caused by asteroid impacts and huge volcanic explosions.

    • Photo: Bob Bonwick

      Bob Bonwick answered on 2 Jul 2012:

      This is a ‘worst case senario’ idea that suggests that is we have a nuclear war the amount to dust and ash thrown up into the upper atmosphere would block out all sunlight and make the earth a cold and uninhabitable place for a long time.

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