Editing Effects of nuclear explosions (section)

=== Firestorm ===
In [[Hiroshima]] on 6 August 1945, a tremendous [[firestorm]] developed within 20 minutes after detonation and destroyed many more buildings and homes, built out of predominantly 'flimsy' wooden materials.<ref name="osti.gov" /> A firestorm has gale-force winds blowing in towards the center of the fire from all directions. It is not peculiar to nuclear explosions, having been observed frequently in large forest fires and following incendiary raids during World War II. Despite fires destroying a large area of [[Nagasaki]], no true firestorm occurred in the city even though a higher yielding weapon was used. Many factors explain this seeming contradiction, including a different time of bombing than Hiroshima, terrain, and crucially, a lower fuel loading/fuel density than that of Hiroshima.
{{blockquote| 
''Nagasaki probably did not furnish sufficient fuel for the development of a firestorm as compared to the many buildings on the flat terrain at Hiroshima.''<ref>[https://www.fourmilab.ch/etexts/www/effects/eonw_7.pdf Glasstone & Dolan (1977) Thermal effects Chapter] p. 304</ref>}}
Scientists have consistently highlighted a lack of accounting for large urban firestorms in civilian and military nuclear response planning.<ref name="v270">{{cite book |last=Eden |first=L. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yDk5hfkyISUC&pg=PR9 |title=Whole World on Fire: Organizations, Knowledge, and Nuclear Weapons Devastation |publisher=Cornell University Press |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-8014-3578-2 |series=Cornell paperbacks |page=9 |access-date=2025-04-22}}</ref><ref name="b841">{{cite journal |last=Cotton |first=William R. |year=1985 |title=Atmospheric Convection and Nuclear Winter: A new simulation of a large urban firestorm shows how smoke and soot might enter the stratosphere and alter the earth's climate |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/27853239 |journal=American Scientist |publisher=Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society |volume=73 |issue=3 |pages=275–280 |issn=0003-0996 |jstor=27853239 |access-date=2025-04-22}}</ref> Other sources state that modern&nbsp;city design and construction makes large firestorms unlikely and adequate shelter can provide protection, using the example of the conventional [[Bombing of Hamburg in World War II|bombing of Hamburg]].<ref name="e442">{{cite journal |last1=LUCAS |first1=KENNETH A. |last2=ORIENT |first2=JANE M. |last3=ROBINSON |first3=ARTHUR |last4=MACCABEE |first4=HOWARD |last5=MORRIS |first5=PAUL |last6=LOONEY |first6=GERALD |last7=KLINGHOFFER |first7=MAX |year=1990 |title=Efficacy of Bomb Shelters: With Lessons From the Hamburg Firestorm |journal=Southern Medical Journal |publisher=Southern Medical Association |volume=83 |issue=7 |pages=812–820 |doi=10.1097/00007611-199007000-00022 |pmid=2196693 |issn=0038-4348}}</ref><ref name="hps.org">{{cite Q|Q63152882}}, p. 24.  Note:  No citation is provided to support the claim that "a firestorm in modern times is unlikely".</ref>{{Dead link|date=April 2025}}{{Clear}}