What If a Nuke Hit New York City Tomorrow? 

Important to note: When discussing nuclear fusion and nuclear fission, it's better to refer to these as nuclear processes, not chemical processes. In this video, they were referred to as chemical. Thanks for the comments pointing this out.

The average price of rent would finally go down a bit.

That gives me such a hard Kurzgesagt vibe

I was at work in midtown Manhattan on September 11th. My coworkers and I left the city as quickly as we could that day because no one could be sure what exactly was happening or if a larger attack was incoming. I remember thinking about nukes.

I bet those giant supersize rats still survive it

Of course this drops while I'm on vacation in New York City 🤣😫

Just crouch under your desk. You'll be fine.

The only problem is that the bomber would most likely be grounded hors before it even makes it over New York City. If something like this did occur, it would be from an ICBM, high profile, but faster, and harder to take down.

Not so fun fact. Most of the worlds agricultural output is dependent on the same countries that would most likely be destroyed in a nuclear war. So no matter what part of the world you reside inn. The aftermath for most of the world is mass starvation. Seeds, fertilizer & farming equipment to name a few. Without modern agriculture we'd struggle to have 1-2 billion people on Earth.

If new york was nuked, I'd hope ground zero was the UN building and every world leader was in attendance. Then I'd start up my grill while jammin' to Billy Idol's Hot In The City.

Actually air burst nuclear bombs are supposed to leave virtually no radioactive debris. Only bombs detonated at ground level produce radioactive fallout. That is why the Zsar bomba was detonated so high up, to leave no radioactive fallout.

As a New Yorker...shit.

videos like these keep me alive 🥺🙌🏾

I grew up during the end of the Cold War and lived with this fear of nuclear annihilation every single day. Scared the shit out of me when I was old enough to understand what it was. After the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, I think everybody seemed to forget that nukes existed. We were not afraid of a Cold War ending in one brilliant flash of light. Instead we became more concerned about little wars. Terrorism became the biggest fear because it was random and unexpected. A dirty bomb was the biggest threat. And we all silently thanked those people working in positions of law enforcement who constantly tracked, checked and rechecked any threat of this nature.

Just ran across your channel great stuff great visuals and only 250k subs this is injustice you deserve more keep you the great content and work 🙃🙂

I was having a bit of a cheery day, thanks for fixing that :)

Unthinkable! Hopefully such a thing will *not* happen!

Being with Kurzgesagt since day 1 - just matter of time, this channel will top the list. Bravo 👏🏽

Thanks for another video!

Great video, and also terrifying

Seems like a good idea

Still gonna be the most peaceful day in the subway system

I assume the big guy would get his 10%

Dont worry about things that are out of your control...

Has anyone ever done a deep dive into what a thermonuclear blast would do to nearby skyscrapers? The heat and pressure is gone very fast. It's curious to see if any studies show what types of concrete and steel structures would remain standing, much like the concrete Atomic Dome building / Hospital in Hiroshima.

The worst part would be surviving and having to suffer the rest of your life in agony

Very good video, as usual. 🤩 Apart from calling nuclear reactions "chemical". 😇

I had a dream recently that I was in L.A. up in the mountains looking down at the city with my girl in the car .. then out of nowhere, I see a big white flash, and I see a huge mushroom cloud forming up from the distance.. I remember feeling like “wow they actually did it “ that dream felt so real .. and I don’t dream often !!

There would be at least 1000x more damage done to NYC than what 9/11 did should a single nuclear bomb is dropped over The Big Apple. This is why I've been apprehensive about living in a metropolis like NYC ever since 9/11.

What if ❌ When ✅

Fun fact, when the atomic bombs were dropped on japan, there were still samurai that were alive

This one is the favorite fairytale story of Chinese childrens.

Bro is hyped for Oppenheimer movie!

The buildings in this video are actually from Gold Coast Australia (Q1, Hilton, Peppers Soul etc) I love it

Hello Cold War, nice to see you again! Been a long time..

I have an eerie feeling that you just might have predicted the future.

Outstanding animation brilliant voice over and offcourse as usual yet another 👌🏻 topic thx for sharing to us❤

this was a very well put together video...however in a real world scenario it is very unlikely for NYC to get nuked unless the enemy's goal is to kill as many people as possible. The goal of a nuclear strike is to stop your enemy from being able to hit you back. Enemies would go for targets like Montana which is (rumored) to have large amounts of silos. They would go for military sites and camps. Cities with no military presence or relevance would be the last cities hit. United States would respond in a similar more deadly fashion. In a hypothetical situation...lets say Russia decides to nuke NYC to show its strength...The US would already be aware of the missile leaving the silo and would launch almost instantly from a nearby submarine silo off the coast of Taiwan somewhere...United states nuke would already incinerate Russia's military installment before Russia missile even enters US airspace. US would attempt to deter most of the MIRV missiles but would ultimately still get hit, but I don't see it being a total loss for the US. Unfortunately there would still be a great loss of life, but it would be total devastation for Russia and Russia would be wiped off the face of the existence if this ever happened.

thanks for the idea😊😊

Love this video ❤

The entire world would sink into chaos.

Lotta comparisons, but all I see is another fantastic, educational channel I can't wait to share with my baby girls.

Great voice over! Keep ‘em Coming

Sadly, as mentioned already here, KURZGESAGT made a very similar video a few years ago and it’s still better than this one. I’m not sure why Koranos made this one. It didn’t explain things any better and didn’t go in a different direction. It is even paced the same. With the same info taken directly from KURZGESAGT. It’s not plagiarism but it’s clearly inspired by the KURZGESAGT guys. Maybe Koranos are running out of video ideas? If so what about a video on Megalodons? The Meg 2 is coming out soon so it’s got an audience and I don’t think KURZGESAGT have covered that topic yet. Would be nice to see Koranos animate a video about something different or at least give a more unique take on a particular subject rather than just blatantly stealing others ideas.

The problem with many Russian built hardware are that they have a tendency to explode already on homeground.

The traffic and the Subway is pretty radioactive even without the bombs... Jokes aside, this documentary is top quality... Thank you♥️

I live just about across Lake Michigan from Chicago and I often envision the hot mushroom cloud at the horizon. About 70 miles .. can't see across from the bluff but up in a small plane you can, and the odd refraction cloud to water to cloud you can see the skyline, even cars on outer drive when the, usually dusk, light is right. Like looking across a river for a brief time. But a fireball & shock across the lake, surely way too visible....and then what? Hide in the basement for days? Weeks. Cripes what a world situation.

Amazingly Nice 💣

While you will be effected by the fallout due to the wind, the further you are away from the fallout, the safer you are. Either way, New York City isn't even high on the list here. Strategically you're looking for military bases on the coastlines to start with them you're working your way inward. How do I know this? I'm an end of days prepper. I'm ready for this type of scenario and know what to expect.

Most NY structures are old buildings, not modern skyscrapers.

When dropping the Tsar Bomba 100 on Nukemaps, the fireball alone would engulf Manhattan from the Statue of Liberty to the southern half of Central Park and people living as far west as Lancaster Pennsylvania would still be under the mushroom cloud. Granted, that was from a ground detonation

Amazing vibe

Wouldn't that be a blast to see it firsthand

I wouldn't be surprised if this guy was put on a list after releasing this video

Just letting this out there that no longer do these bombs even need to hit their intended targets to be effective as the radius is big enough that if they hit a lesser target by the main it might also take out more targets other than just those 2. Hitting just NY is not smart as it is by the water and hitting further in would do more damage and the fall out will get the main. More casualties and less structural. Just saying this might never happen but who knows?

But it won't be 1 for a city like NY, London, Paris or Moscow. It will be many. We don't build really big ones anymore because the overlapping PSI zones from multiple MIRVS is far more destructive..and cities like this have key targets that are underground and hardened..each would get a seperate device. We have never seen a Russian SIOP but we've seen US declassified ones..London or NY could get 5-10 separate warheads.

The fact that humans created something so deadly is so pathetic

Why not today?

who animate this masterpiece animation

gives a whole new meaning to manhattan project

If it happens I hope it’s recorded in 4K and uploaded on RU-vid

i doubt US would do it. There is no oil in New York

And when that happens I'll just sit back injoy the blissful rumbling of every nuke on earth going off

And from Long Island, Connecticut, Westchester, etc.

i love how us is paying content creators to make nuke videos.as if to make us aware that this is gonna happen soon🤣

when he called fission and fusion chemical processes i died inside

I'm sure this will never happen anyways

Cleanest it’s been in a century

The rats in nyc will survive just fine

It’s not a bad video and kursgesgat made a similar one but same problem…. Why is it in both of these fkn channels they make it as if the US is gonna be the one defending and under attack?? It’s literally the only nation who’s nuked a country not once but twice when there was 0 zero reason, and no pearl harbour doesn’t warrant that reason. It would’ve been more realistic to say the US paints a Afghanistan flag on the nuke and then nukes NY to try and engineer a war with them. Kinda makes me think twice about watching these vids…

There will be no guessing about who launched the nuke by the way, maybe publicly announcing it will be delayed, but NORAD and NATO will know exactly who launched a nuke before the nuke even hits its target, that's how defense systems work, they find the source, calculate the trajectory to figure out what the possible targets are, and then try to intercept it. The only nation who would ever even try it is Russia, North Korea talks big but they know they are a tiny insignificant nation that we could erase them from the world map in about 30 minutes flat.

This gives me the chills. I hope this never happens.

The answer to your thumbnail question: We’d declare a national holiday.

It would definitely take out a large swath of the American criminal element.

If that would happen my vacation at the end of the month would be ruined

NYC would FINALLY become affordable to live in!

This is an incredibly optimistic and somewhat naive timeline. The instant-death toll would be in the millions, as Manhattan alone hosts ~8M residents. All food exports would be ceased immediately. First responders for 30 miles around would either be vaporized, or busy attending to their own areas. There would be no investigation into who sent the nuke, because everyone would have counter-launched within seconds of detection of incoming nukes. Nobody would return to their homes, as the area would be a glowing wasteland. Let's have a What-If-Destruction video every week, or perhaps a 6-hour supercut, because apparently enough people fantasize about everything they know and dread getting erased before they can blink; the idea of getting one-shotted from the sky rather than waiting on God's indeterminate hand, being their last emotional release in a mediated realm of empty promises.

No great loss, the sooner the better!

Been seeing a lot of videos like this, Are you telling us we are all going to die soon???

I think your estimate is off. You have defined the weapon as a free fall nuclear bomb, not a warhead from an ICBM or SLBM. So let’s call it 500 kt yield. At an altitude of 1 mile, the fireball diameter is about 400 Meters and does not touch the ground. The temperature would therefore not be in millions of degrees. Reinforced concrete is also pretty resistant. Even close to ground zero you would see some recognizable features.

Damn, when I saw this video in my subs and added it to my Watch List, I thought it was a Kurzgesagt video. It wasn't until it came on when I was washing dishes that I realized it wasn't. I am disappoint. You guys should really get your own artstyle for your thumbnails instead of copping a bigger channel's.

Well, it would certainly put a dent in America's homeless and crime rates.

Why the abrupt end to the video? 11:00

Some of these comments about wishing this or that on certain places is pretty sick, I don’t think we want this anywhere

I don't think most people would lose any sleep over a nuke obliterating NYC.

If it does, I would only hope LA, SF and Seattle would be next.

"Interesting game doctor: the only winning move is not to play"

Crazy they’ve leveled two cities with nukes before and didn’t get any good footage of it.

If New York City ceases to exist the entire human condition will dramatically improve instantaneously.

America would instantly become a better place.

its shocking how much power this small bomb has

I just want to point out that the safest place to go from a incoming thermonuclear ballistic missile would be the newly renovated Penn Station and Hudson Yard. The deep underground subway stations MTA built couple of years ago. You must go down there! You will be safe from the blast and radiation fallout.

Basically the best thing that could happen

A cess pit is removed, and nothing of value is lost...

This is exactly between the inphographoc show and kurzgesagt.

It’s kinda better more realistic animations than the other RU-vid channel

Crime would go down for the first time since Giuliani

I don’t think I personally would miss it. They could drop one on chicago, l. a. and san francisco each while they’re at it. Maybe Minneapolis, Detroit and Houston too 🤔

So isolated incident or general attack?

This is so scary 😢