The map above simulates a 300-kiloton nuclear airburst over Los Angeles, USA — roughly the size of a modern deployed warhead. The coloured rings show the estimated fireball, the zones of heavy, moderate and light blast damage, the reach of the thermal flash and the ionizing-radiation dose. Drag the marker or change the weapon in the full simulator to explore other scenarios.
The metropolitan area is home to about 12.8 million people — the rings above are drawn to real scale over their homes.
The marker is on downtown Los Angeles. The 1.9 km zone of total destruction covers the Civic Center, the Financial District's towers, Little Tokyo, the Arts District and Union Station; the 4.7 km collapse ring reaches Echo Park, Chinatown, Boyle Heights, the Fashion District and USC's northern edge. Third-degree burns extend to about 7.5 km over Koreatown, Dodger Stadium, Exposition Park, Lincoln Heights and Vernon; the 14.5 km ring of broken windows reaches Hollywood, Silver Lake, Glendale's southern edge, Huntington Park and Culver City's approach.
Los Angeles County has 10 million residents, but the city is unusually spread out, so a 300-kiloton warhead over downtown reaches a smaller share of the population than the same weapon would in New York or Paris — roughly 3 million people inside the outer ring. The Elysian and Hollywood hills would cast shadows to the north; the basin to the south is open. Compare the 800-kiloton Topol scenario over the same point.
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