The blast and the fallout are only the first act. When a nuclear war or a supervolcano lofts enough soot and ash into the stratosphere, it dims the sun for years — temperatures crash, growing seasons collapse, and the crop belts that feed the country stop producing. This is what the climate models say actually kills the most people: not the fire, the famine that follows. Set the amount of soot in the sky and watch the growing season — and the food supply — go dark, then slowly come back.
A deep pantry and a way to grow food through a failed harvest are what carry a household past the fire and the fallout.
Blot out the sun and watch the harvest fail.
The blast and fallout are only the first act — soot from a nuclear war or a supervolcano can dim the sun for years.
This is built on published soot-climate studies and is a broad, illustrative model — the exact numbers are uncertain and debated. The point it makes is robust: the second-order famine, not the blast, is the largest threat, which is why deep food stores matter.
