You know it wasn't that long ago. In fact, it was just a few weeks past that the good ole planet Earth was given a magnificent display of a solar event that actually happens much more than we admit or know. Some particularly strong solar flares hit the Earth and gave a show of the Northern Lights a bit farther south than just the folks in Nothern Canada and Alaska catch multiple times a year.
Our very own Susie Moore wrote about it in a terrific May 10 post called Friday Morning Minute:
Alright, I promised no more tornado talk (sort of) — and I will note that the Lighter Fare tweet below is about hail, not twisters — BUT...just in case you've not had your fill of whacky weather, guess what else is going on? Solar flares! Wild and wooly solar flares. Ones that send the Northern Lights southward.
Large sunspot groups and strong solar flares led to the issuance of SWPC's first G4 Watch since 2005... pic.twitter.com/oi55cTPXhP
— NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center (@NWSSWPC) May 9, 2024UPGRADE! The SWPC has upped their prediction to a KP8+ for tomorrow night into Saturday morning. Grab those cameras, the Midwest is CLEAR! This is the first time I have ever seen this graphic used. pic.twitter.com/qCROltF1eL
— Chris Wicklund Auroras (@Wicky_dubs_WX) May 9, 2024
I was lucky enough here in southeast Michigan to catch a glimpse of the lights, which is hard to do in suburban areas, and being just north of the city of Detroit I felt lucky to be able to catch them for five to ten minutes.
I would say that even aside from the fact that the Bible in the New Testament, according to Luke, could be predicting things that have naturally occurred since the creation of the Earth, these events occurring are coming at a unique time in the recorded history of the world and could be signs of things to come.
25 And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring;
26 Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.
Luke 21:25-26
We live during a time of Joe Biden and his corrupt family running this country.
Hunter Biden, need I say more?
The sun bursting off like this is not the most unusual thing ever, but it is something that NASA has been keeping an eye on and they are one of the reasons we were given nearly a day in advance warning to know a big burst of sun flare was heading our way. Of course, not to just let us know that pretty colors might be in the southern skies instead of just the northern heavens but to give a heads up to those who own expensive and delicate equipment on the ground and in space.
On May 14, 2024, the Sun emitted a strong solar flare. This solar flare is the largest of Solar Cycle 25 and is classified as an X8.7 flare. X-class denotes the most intense flares, while the number provides more information about its strength.
A solar flare is an intense burst of radiation, or light, on the Sun. Flares are our solar system’s most powerful explosive events. Light only takes about 8 minutes to travel from the Sun to Earth, so that’s how long it would take the energy from a flare to reach our planet. Stronger solar flares — those rated class M5 or above — can have impacts on technology that depends on Earth’s ionosphere (our electrically charged upper atmosphere), like high-frequency radio used for navigation and GPS.
NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) captured these images of the flare, which peaked at 12:51 p.m. ET on May 14. The X8.7 flare appears on the lower right edge of the Sun. (A small eruption appears afterward in the upper left.) SDO sees the Sun in more than 10 distinct wavelengths of light, showing solar material at different temperatures. Different wavelengths are shown in this video to highlight different features of the flare.
We just happen to be right smack in the 11 to 12-year cycle where the sun tends to get a little bit crankier and burst off solar flares, which, while nice to look at, result in a midnight sky that can wreak havoc on everything that makes our life pretty darn convenient. Electrical equipment could fry and that means power outages, communications going down, and you not being able to easily purchase tickets to a baseball game and head down to watch after work.
Just think of a modern society in a couple of moments going from digitally run with oodles of electricity to Little House on the Prairie without Michael Landon helping you till your field. Yes, it could happen almost that quickly.
The Carrington Event in 1859 caused havoc on a society that did not have electrical everything, but it fried the telegraph system which was just about the most sophisticated thing going back then.
Possibly you think that people in 1859 had a heightened imagination for such things; well how about French-speaking Canadians in 1989? A Scary 13th: 20 Years Ago, Earth Was Blasted with a Massive Plume of Solar Plasma
The results were to say, impressive to scary.
Some satellites, the closest to the action, suffered electronic glitches. "That wasn't so much an issue then, as there were far fewer satellites in orbit compared to now," Odenwald says. The space storm's effects extended all the way to Earth's surface and even below it in the form of geomagnetically induced currents (GICs). These electrical surges infiltrated power grids all over North America and northern Europe, and even destroyed a transformer at a nuclear power plant in New Jersey.
Most significantly, at about 2:45 A.M. local time on Monday, March 13, Canada's Hydro-Québec power utility's grid crashed when safety systems sensed a power overload caused by the currents pulsing through the ground. The failure knocked out electricity to six million people in northeastern Canada for as long as nine hours—the biggest outage ever caused by a geomagnetic storm.
I don't know about you but transformers being destroyed at nuke plants sounds a bit much from solar flares. Are we actually prepared for a larger solar blast?
No.
Thankfully, I'm not just here to tell you that you should be scared every time you hear about northern lights coming your way but to also do a l'il pre-care on you and your stuff for future you.
There was an excellent documentary put out a couple of years ago that I heard about on Joe Rogan's show called Grid Down, Power Up that I hope you will check out. Solar Flares are one of the issues that could cause havoc along with millions of illegals flooding this country and the more you know the better prepared you will be for anything that should come our way.
Who knows, maybe the next time we get those lovely northern lights and you can hear electrical pops in the air, you will know exactly what is happening and not worry about all the confusion about to be heaped upon the people in your area.
Thus you can enjoy the last sip of that adult beverage and enjoy it before all hell breaks loose.
