<p>The question is about a foreign object, ranging from an asteroid to a spaceship. How large does it have to be in order for its presence to start messing with the weather patterns, causing the like of hurricanes and twisters to appear? </p>

<p>And as an add on to this question, at what size does it go from causing an atmospheric event to a geological one without touching the ground. </p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-07-31T04:16:53.713Z
Clearly, the larger the object, the worse the atmospheric effects. Even a sand grain can cause something in its immediate vicinity. Where do you put the line between something that is a atmospheric event in your view, and something that isn't?
Gimelist
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-07-31T06:39:15.510Z
Hurricanes and twisters have very specific dynamics that create them. Perhaps the rising motion portion of the inertially driven wave due to something big entering the atmosphere quickly could spark some storms, which in just the right atmosphere, might spawn a tornado. Or if the entry brought a massive amount of heat into the troposphere by itself (or by impact with Earth), it could spark thermal circulations and moistening/lift? (such impacts also are seen from wildfires/volcanoes) But I don't particularly envision tornadoes and hurricanes typically from such happenings, no matter how big.
JeopardyTempest
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-07-31T18:57:54.927Z
Pretty sure this is more of a question of speed than size, but I'd need a specific magnitude of event that you were considering to make a confident answer. The only effect an atmospheric entry is going to have is to cause at atmospheric shockwave, or not, this may cause localised precipitation but it's unlikely to create wind events..
Ash
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-07-31T20:25:59.327Z
To add more details. It for a 2 grid space ship classification system I'm working on for a rule system.

The idea was to use earth as the base and set a range of different size classification what the mass of the ship would do to it. As such I don't have a set mass in mind.
Hezine
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-08-02T04:02:06.563Z
Tunguska, the largest meteor/comet impact in recorded human history didn't create any weather events but it created a very large hot gust of wind that knocked people over from miles away and caused injuries to several.   Chicxulub which was about 6 orders of magnitudes larger caused significant changes in weather and climate, sparking a significant increase in volcanism and putting enough soot in the sky to cool the Earth about 15 degrees C.    Somewhere between those 2 would be the "creates tornadoes" scenario.   I'm not sure quite where.
userLTK
<meteorology><geology><atmosphere>
How big does something have to be to cause an atmospheric event upon entry to the Earth's atmosphere?
Hezine
# How big does something have to be to cause an atmospheric event upon entry to the Earth's atmosphere?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2018-07-31)

The question is about a foreign object, ranging from an asteroid to a spaceship. How large does it have to be in order for its presence to start messing with the weather patterns, causing the like of hurricanes and twisters to appear?

And as an add on to this question, at what size does it go from causing an atmospheric event to a geological one without touching the ground.

**Tags:** meteorology, geology, atmosphere

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Clearly, the larger the object, the worse the atmospheric effects. Even a sand grain can cause something in its immediate vicinity. Where do you put the line between something that is a atmospheric event in your view, and something that isn't?  
> **username_2**: Hurricanes and twisters have very specific dynamics that create them. Perhaps the rising motion portion of the inertially driven wave due to something big entering the atmosphere quickly could spark some storms, which in just the right atmosphere, might spawn a tornado. Or if the entry brought a massive amount of heat into the troposphere by itself (or by impact with Earth), it could spark thermal circulations and moistening/lift? (such impacts also are seen from wildfires/volcanoes) But I don't particularly envision tornadoes and hurricanes typically from such happenings, no matter how big.  
> **username_3**: Pretty sure this is more of a question of speed than size, but I'd need a specific magnitude of event that you were considering to make a confident answer. The only effect an atmospheric entry is going to have is to cause at atmospheric shockwave, or not, this may cause localised precipitation but it's unlikely to create wind events..  
> **username_0**: To add more details. It for a 2 grid space ship classification system I'm working on for a rule system.  The idea was to use earth as the base and set a range of different size classification what the mass of the ship would do to it. As such I don't have a set mass in mind.  
> **username_4**: Tunguska, the largest meteor/comet impact in recorded human history didn't create any weather events but it created a very large hot gust of wind that knocked people over from miles away and caused injuries to several.   Chicxulub which was about 6 orders of magnitudes larger caused significant changes in weather and climate, sparking a significant increase in volcanism and putting enough soot in the sky to cool the Earth about 15 degrees C.    Somewhere between those 2 would be the "creates tornadoes" scenario.   I'm not sure quite where.  

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