Map Shows How a Nuke Could Devastate These Montana’s Cities

We all like to think of Montana as "the Last Best Place," but even Big Sky Country isn’t immune to the terrifying hypotheticals of a nuclear strike. If tensions with Russia ever escalated to an unthinkable level, Montana’s vast landscapes and scattered cities might not be the shield we hope for.

Thanks to Malmstrom Air Force Base, home to a hefty chunk of America’s nuclear defense system, Great Falls would likely be the first target on the map. A direct hit there would devastate the area, and the fallout could spread far beyond city limits. For cities like Bozeman, Missoula, and Helena, secondary effects could disrupt life as we know it, from power grid failures to communication blackouts.

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It’s easy to dismiss this as fearmongering, but let’s face it, Montanans are planners. From prepping for winter blizzards to stocking up for hunting season, we’re not new to thinking ahead. While U.S. officials stress that no nuclear conflict is on the horizon, it doesn’t hurt to be informed.

Newsweek recently wrote about a NUKE-MAP that shows how devastating Russia's nuclear weapons could be if a strike were to happen inside of Montana. The map shows everything from the blast radius to the number of casualties we could possibly face.

Still, it’s hard not to find a bit of dark humor in the situation. If the end of the world does come knocking, at least we have stunning mountain views to go out on. And hey, maybe that underground bunker idea isn’t sounding so bad after all.

Check out which Montana towns would survive the same bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima, the "Little Boy."