Considering the destructive power of an atomic bomb, why was cloud cover an issue?

by [deleted]

Kokura, the primary target for the Fat Man bomb was scrubbed due to cloud cover, but why would this matter?

lowspeedlowdrag

Because the Norden bombsight was optical, and the instructions orders werent to just drop the bomb anywhere over the city but rather to drop the bomb at a very precise location (verified visually, not just by navigation) in order to maximize effects.