• Question: What is nuclear winter?

    Asked by kayleigh99 to Amy, Karen, Sarah, Vijay, Will on 18 Jun 2012.
    • Photo: Sarah Martin

      Sarah Martin answered on 18 Jun 2012:

      Hi kayleigh99!

      Nuclear winter might happen after nuclear weapons are set off. If there are large fires and lots of dust generated, the soot and dust will block out the sun, and Earth will get very cold for months or even years, experiencing “winter” climate. A large volcanic erruption or meterite would do the same!

      Finger crossed none ever happens.

      🙂 Sarah

    • Photo: Amy Birch

      Amy Birch answered on 18 Jun 2012:

      Hi kayleigh99,
      Nuclear winter is the proposed after-effects of a nuclear war on the planet.
      Scientists have shown that there could be between 1 to 5 million tonnes of smoke into the atmosphere that may stay there for up to 6 years. This would cause a huge cooling effect on the earth (as the black smoke particles would absorb light from the sun, stopping it from reaching earth) & would also cause a massive drop in rainfall. That means that crops would fail and the earth would probably go into global famine.
      Luckily, the chances of nuclear war actually happening are very very slim! 🙂

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