[Alter Kaker]

Just as a matter of academic interest, how many nukes would it take to cover every, single, square inch of the planet in nuclear fire?

Approximately 300 nuclear weapons would destroy every city and town with a population of greater than 50k in Russia.

[Jack Hammer]

So... can we infer from that, since there are six continents (aside from Antarctica), that we would need only 6x300 - or 1800 (give or take) - to blanket the entire population of Planet Earth in fire...?

[Mouton]

That is they all get there and work.

LaMay’s plan was to ensure there were 4 weapons for every site they wanted to destroy.

Many things affect the amount of destruction: weapons size, topography, height of explosion amongst others. Make up of the weapon, weather, wind and cloud cover mostly, affect the fall out patern.

That said, I would not wish to be around in a post nuclear exchange world. Living close to a sub base in Ga makes that worry moot.