We’re Still Standing as Geomagnetic Storm Passes, By Brian Simpson
On the weekend a level 5 geomagnetic solar storm hit the Earth, mainly impacting upon the northern hemisphere. However, a friend in South Australia from down south, of down south, emailed me to tell of a light show there, with the sky in what was usually a star-filled sky on a cloudless night, being a red colour. There have been power outages across the world, and damaged transformers. However, the prediction of another Carrington Event of the magnitude of the 1800s event which fried the electronics of the time, setting on fire telegraph lines, fortunately did not occur. The YouTube prepping sites though, went into over-drive on this, with their usual, joyful paranoia, but it has been said, that a healthy degree of paranoia keeps one alive.
The lesson here is that while the sun is a long way away, it still has an impact upon the Earth at a fundamental level. Most real climate change is caused not by carbon dioxide build up, but from solar cycles. And these so called "cannibal" civilisation-ending solar storms, while improbable, are not impossible, with a probability per year estimated to be 10 percent. One such storm missed the Earth in March 2023.
"The powerful geomagnetic storm that will make the northern lights visible to much of the US has been upgraded to a Level 5, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric announced in an updated warning.
"Extreme" G5 conditions reached Earth from the sun shortly before 7 p.m. Friday night — the first geomagnetic storm of such magnitude since Halloween 2003, according to the federal agency.
That storm resulted in power outages in Sweden and damaged transformers in South Africa, NOAA said.
A G5 geomagnetic storm can cause "widespread voltage control problems and protective system problems can occur, some grid systems may experience complete collapse or blackouts," according to NOAA's storm scale.
A Level 6 K-index is expected through Saturday evening, which means the storm could impact the power grid at latitudes north of 55 degrees, which is north of the contiguous United States.
GPS systems, satellite navigation and other technologies could also be impacted.
The K-scale "quantifies disturbances in the earth's magnetic field with an integer in the range 0-9 with 1 being calm and 5 or more indicating a geomagnetic storm," according to the agency.
"We're monitoring the potential impacts of this geomagnetic storm, which will continue through Monday morning," New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a statement.
"State personnel are coordinating with industry stakeholders & the federal government. There have been no reported impacts to the electrical grid or radio communications," she added.
The rare phenomenon will make the northern lights visible as far south as Alabama.
Visibility will be best around midnight, but will largely depend on the amount of cloud coverage and light population, which will make the light show impossible to see for Big Apple residents, Fox News meteorologist Samantha Thomas told The Post."
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