US President Donald Trump suggested dropping nuclear bombs into hurricanes to prevent them from hitting the US, according to a report from American news website Axios.

Key points: A source who was in the briefing room said the President asked whether they could "nuke" the storms as the moved across the Atlantic

A source who was in the briefing room said the President asked whether they could "nuke" the storms as the moved across the Atlantic The White House declined to comment but an unnamed senior official said Mr Trump's overarching objective was "not bad"

The White House declined to comment but an unnamed senior official said Mr Trump's overarching objective was "not bad" An expert from the US National Hurricane Centre said using bombs to disrupt the course of hurricanes was "not a good idea"

The suggestion reportedly came during a hurricane briefing with senior Homeland Security and national security officials at the White House.

Axois did not name the source but said they were in the room when the President raised the idea.

"I got it. I got it. Why don't we nuke them?" the source said, paraphrasing Mr Trump.

"They start forming off the coast of Africa, as they're moving across the Atlantic, we drop a bomb inside the eye of the hurricane and it disrupts it."

The source told Axios the person briefing the President said he would "look into that", with the suggestion astonishing those in the room.

Axios said Mr Trump brought up the hurricane-nuking idea a second time with a senior official, an exchange which the Axios report said was recorded in a 2017 National Security Council memo.

The White House declined to comment on the Axios story, with an official telling the outlet the government did not comment on the President's private discussions.

Another unnamed source told Axios the idea was no cause for alarm and showed the US leader was willing to "ask tough questions".

"His goal — to keep a catastrophic hurricane from hitting the mainland — is not bad," the official said.

Mr Trump later tweeted that the report was "ridiculous", saying: "I never said this".

However Axios reporter Jonathan Swan said he stood by the story.

Would bombing hurricanes do any good?

The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has already answered this question, with Chris Landsea of NOAA's National Hurricane Centre saying the suggestion was "not a good idea".

Dr Landsea pointed out radioactive particles released by a nuclear bomb into a hurricane would move with the storm and have devastating environmental repercussions.

Mr Trump at a hurricane season briefing in 2017. ( Reuters: Carlos Barria )

Leaving a potential nuclear disaster out of the equation, he said the scheme would not even be effective at modifying a hurricane's course.

"The main difficulty with using explosives to modify hurricanes is the amount of energy required," Dr Landsea wrote in an NOAA blog post.

"In addition, an explosive, even a nuclear explosive, produces a shock wave, or pulse of high pressure, that propagates away from the site of the explosion somewhat faster than the speed of sound.

"Such an event doesn't raise the barometric pressure after the shock has passed because barometric pressure in the atmosphere reflects the weight of the air above the ground.

Dr Landsea said dropping a bomb into a hurricane was "not a good idea". ( NOAA )

"To change a category five hurricane into a category two hurricane you would have to add about a half ton of air for each square metre inside the eye, or a total of a bit more than half a billion tons for a 20-kilometre-radius eye.

"It's difficult to envision a practical way of moving that much air around."

Targeting weak tropical depressions would also be fruitless, Dr Landsea said, as there is currently no way to tell which systems will develop into hurricanes.

NOAA has also debunked other outlandish hurricane prevention suggestions, ruling out fighting the tropical storms with icebergs, dry ice and even giant fans.

"Perhaps the best solution is not to try to alter or destroy the tropical cyclones, but just learn to co-exist better with them," a factsheet says.

Tropical Storm Dorian is currently building in intensity near the Windward Islands in the West Indies.

The US National Hurricane Centre said the storm could intensify to near hurricane strength over the eastern Caribbean by Tuesday, with hurricane warnings in place for Barbados, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines.

ABC/AP