Some states are safer than others in a nuclear attack — this startling map reveals prime targets

Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst investigated wind and weather patterns to predict the timeline of nuclear fallout, including the paths through which radiation would spread throughout the country.

Experts agree that the Midwest, where 450 ballistic missile silos are stored — particularly Montana, North Dakota and Nebraska — would be the most likely primary target as detonating just two of those storehouses could cause an explosion equal to 100,000 tons of TNT, per Scientific American.

Exposure to radiation poisoning from a nuclear attack would guarantee death for an estimated 300 million Americans within four days of detonation.

A nuclear fallout map was produced by experts for Scientific American.

Citizens throughout much of Kansas, Iowa, South Dakota, Wyoming and parts of Colorado would suffer death within weeks of exposure to radiation after the silo states get decimated.

In contrast, the three westernmost states — California, Washington and Oregon — would see the least impact from nuclear fallout, wherein most regions would see little more than the safest allowed level of radiation exposure within four days of the attack.

The annual public limit for radiation exposure is 0.001 grays. At 0.05 grays, symptoms can arise.

Meanwhile, the East Coast also proved relatively safe from nuclear attack, thanks to its distance from these hot spots in the northern U.S. plains region, all the way from Maine to Florida, as well as some inland states, including Alabama, Tennessee and Ohio.

However, experts maintain that “nowhere is truly safe” from nuclear attack.

“Even a relatively ‘small’ nuclear war would cause a nuclear winter famine that would kill at least a billion people [worldwide],” said Christian Appy, the director of the Ellsberg Initiative for Peace and Democracy at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, who recently spoke to Newsweek about the Scientific American report.

Low levels of radiation poisoning cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, fatigue, seizures coma and skin damage.

The country’s outermost coastal states — Florida, Washington and much of New England — are in the best position to get out of Dodge with about four days to spare until radiation hits.

Americans residing in those Midwestern hotspots would face 8 grays (Gy) of radiation exposure by the four days of nuclear fallout — a death sentence.

Sign for a nuclear fallout shelter on a brick wall outside a residential block in Brooklyn, NY, where citizens would have at least four days to evacuate before radiation exposure from a nuclear attack in the Midwest. Hulton Archive

Compare that to the country’s outermost coastal states, namely Florida, Washington and much of New England, which would see just 0.001 gy of radiation four days after the bomb — putting them in the best position to get out of Dodge before falling ill.

In the U.S., the annual public limit for radiation is 0.001 gy, while certain industrial workers are allowed up to .05 gy, which is enough to cause symptoms.

Appy urged Americans not to see the map as a real estate opportunity, telling Newsweek readers it would be “morally repugnant to think about the safest places to survive a nuclear war.”

”A major nuclear war would throw so much soot and debris into the stratosphere that it would produce a nuclear winter that would kill all or nearly all of those who survived the blast, firestorms, and radiation of the war,” the peace advocate explained.