Dream – Nuclear Winter?

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Everything was grey, and it was raining.

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Nuclear winter?

I am not sure if it was a nuclear winter or not.

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Here is a description:

http://science.howstuffworks.com/nuclear-winter1.htm

noun

a period of abnormal cold and darkness predicted to follow a nuclear war, caused by a layer of smoke and dust in the atmosphere blocking the sun’s rays.

as nuclear firestorms incinerate cities and fo­rests, torrents of smoke ascend into the atmosphere to entomb the planet in billowing, black clouds of ash.

The result is noontime darkness, plummeting temperatures and the eventual death of life on planet Earth.

If sufficient ash from burning cities and forests ascended into the sky, it could effectively work as an umbrella, shielding large portions of the Earth from the sun.

If you diminish the amount of sunlight that makes its way to the surface, then you diminish the resulting atmospheric temperature — as well as potentially interfere with photosynthesis.

Some scientists predict that nuclear winter would be followed by an even harsher spring. They theorize that the sunlight bounced back up from the smoke clouds would heat up nitrogen oxides in the stratosphere.

At high temperatures, the nitrogen oxides, which formed due to blast-burned oxygen, would deplete the ozone layer at much higher than normal rates.

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There are degrees of intensity; these are the scenarios:

Minimal nuclear winter: In the best-case scenario for nuclear war, a small enough attack would cause minimal cloud cover and little or no environmental impact. While the damage sustained by targeted areas might prove substantial, the rest of the world wouldn’t suffer atmospheric consequences.

Marginal nuclear winter: Sagan and Turco predict a grim scenario for even a “marginal” nuclear winter. They calculate that a few nuclear detonations above urban centers in a contained nuclear war could lower temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere by a few degrees. Agricultural production would suffer, resulting in famine — especially if accompanied by severe drought. While a great deal of the ash would return to Earth in black rains, much would remain in the upper atmosphere. Sagan and Turco predict that the deaths from such a nuclear winter would equal those killed in the nuclear war. Everything below the equator would remain mostly unaffected, given the hemispheric separation of air currents and the fact that most nuclear targets exist in the Northern Hemisphere.

Nominal nuclear winter: The authors deem this class of nuclear winter a low-end possibility for a full-scale nuclear war involving the detonation of between 6,000 and 12,000 nuclear weapons. Survivors would endure dark skies, widespread drought, fallout and global temperature drops of 18.3 degrees F (10 degrees C) in the Northern Hemisphere. Noon sunlight would be only one-third what it was before the war. In the following months, these clouds would dissipate, and the sun would seem to burn hotter than before. Because nuclear blasts would have destroyed much of the ozone layer, greater quantities of solar radiation would reach the Earth’s surface. The Southern Hemisphere wouldn’t experience major climatic change.

Substantial nuclear winter: This scenario, following full-scale nuclear war, involves catastrophic consequences for the Northern Hemisphere: freezing temperatures, widespread fallout, pollution, ozone depletion and disrupted precipitation. Imagine a deeply overcast day — now imagine those conditions persisting for years. Green plants would barely receive enough sunlight for photosynthesis. Crops would fail, billions of humans would die, species would go extinct and while humanity would likely survive, civilization as we know it might not. Damage to the Southern Hemisphere would depend on the number of detonations below the equator.

Severe nuclear winter: In this scenario, less than 1 percent of the sun’s light makes it to the Earth’s surface for a period of months, resulting in temperature drops around the globe and insufficient light for photosynthesis. In addition to widespread famine and pollution, Sagan and Turco predict that agricultural production would be reduced to levels not seen since the Dark Ages.

Extreme nuclear winter: In this worst-case scenario, based on the conditions in 1990, nearly all the world’s nuclear weapons are deployed. The result would be utter darkness at noon. Much of the planet’s life would perish within the chilly confines of this black, atmospheric tomb

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Dream October 30, 2016

I was attending a college, and had established my living quarters.

I met my roommate, and we had everything we needed. (In reality, this is not true. I am retired and finished with school)

It was nice outside and a pleasant sunny day.

It seemed like it was still fall, since I was starting school.

I had on short sleeves. (I live in the southeast USA)

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I then saw some piles of smoke coming from the ground. The piles were not that big.

I do not know if something fell there from above, or it originated from the ground.

The atmosphere temperature quickly changed to cooler, the sky was very grey, and it started to lightly rain.

The rain was cool, but not freezing.

I could not determine what caused this change: a war, a nuclear blast, a volcanic eruption, a toxic gas?

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The rain seemed to affect the skin, and I told people to get out of the rain, as it was making the skin peel up.

I told people I thought it was acid rain, but had more acid in it than usual, or something that made the skin peel up.

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Also, suddenly, I had nothing I needed. Cell phone was gone. Supplies were gone. They had been taken.

I was wandering around in the rain looking for an umbrella, so I could travel home. My dog was with me.

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I realized anyone I knew had to be left behind. I was aware of sick people who were being abandoned by others.

My thoughts were that I wished I had left for the mountains to find a refuge earlier.

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Whatever had happened, life had changed for the worst, and would not improve.

I knew this was coming as a friend had warned me, but I did not stay at home as he advised.

Now I was trying to find a way home without my body being damaged by the rain.

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I tried to show people the rain was damaging their skin, but the few people I saw seemed to be dazed, and disappearing quickly around me, as if they just left the area I was in.

Dream ended with me still in the rain, looking for supplies.

End of dream #1

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Dream #2 Follow up

It is the aftermath of Dream #1.

The rain has stopped.

There is a little bit of a recovery, and I see a few people around me.

A man asks if he can sit down at a table with a lady, and she lets him know the chair is (still) dirty.

I focus on feeding my dog, who is still with me.

However, life has not returned to normal.

Everything still looks grey.

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Thoughts

I am not sure what caused the event in the dream.

There was no explosion that I was aware of (or the dream started after an explosion)

But the devastation was there.

Nothing worked.

Everything seemed gone.

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I wish I understood the skin issue.

It seems to be key to what happened.

Normally, acid rain will not harm the skin, unless there is sulfuric acid in it.

Sulfuric acid does come from volcanoes, but I do not know if this is the explanation for the dream.

There are no volcanoes where I live.

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Maybe others who read this can share some insight.

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