What would nuclear fallout be like?

Answer 1

In the event of an all out nuclear war, we may suffer from a "Nuclear Winter". The sky will turn murky and dark. The sun will not shine for hundreds of years, and every food or water source caught in the mist of the nuclear fallout will become irradiated or incinerated. Come Winter, everything will die off due to extreme freeze.

For limited tactical use of nuclear weapons the results will be less dramatic. None of the tests of nuclear weapons or the deployment of such systems at the end of WW2 caused any impact on the weather. Som radiosactive isotoes were noted in downwing rain and snow,

Answer 2

Mostly very fine gritty dust that when it landed on your skin would burn it, even though it is cool. If you inhaled or swallowed it the dust would burn you on the inside. Close to the blast it might include pieces of gravel.

Depending on the quantity of fallout you would likely develop radiation sickness in a few days or maybe even hours and be vomiting uncontrollably. Possibly your intestinal lining will die and you will develop bloody diarrhea. If not properly medically treated at that point you will die in 2 to 6 weeks.

Answer 3

Here is a report on people actually impacted by nuclear fallout. This is the report from Japan Times 2014:
On March 1, 1954, a Japanese fishing boat named Lucky Dragon No. 5 was doused by radioactive fallout from a U.S. hydrogen-bomb test., On the morning of the test, the wind blew radioactive fallout onto unlucky islanders,

American servicemen and that Japanese boat fishing for tuna 160 km east of the blast site, some 32 km outside the exclusion zone.

The crew reported that sandy ash fell onto the vessel for a few hours, and soon after they began to suffer nausea. By March 14, they had serious symptoms of radiation sickness and were hospitalized in Tokyo.

The American doctors insisting fallout was not the cause — a finding that Japanese doctors disputed.