Can Disaster Happen In The Blink Of A Solar Storm?
Solar storms are bursts of charged particles and magnetic energy from the Sun. They have been disrupting Earth’s technology and infrastructure for over 160 years. These geomagnetic events are often triggered by combinations of coronal mass ejections (CMEs), Solar flares, filament release, and Coronal holes. They can interfere with everything from telegraphs and railways to satellites and smartphones. As we enter a new solar peak, understanding their history helps us prepare for what’s ahead.
Let’s take a look back through history and see the chaos solar storms have created. Beginning with the Carrington Event of August 28, 1859. This was the first time in history that we had technology that was affected by solar storms. What a wake-up call. Telegraph systems across North America and Europe sparked, caught fire, and operated without batteries. Auroras lit up skies as far south as Cuba and Hawaii. Miners in the Rockies woke thinking it was morning. Farmer were getting up to work their fields at midnight, thinking it was dawn. This was one of the largest events ever recorded. Scientists have thought it to be an X-class 45 storm. But new studies being done are thinking it may have been closer to X class 90.
December 14, 1862 – The Civil War Aurora – Auroras were seen over battle battlefield in Fredericksburg, Virginia. It rose above the battlefield almost in a moon glow. It continued to grow until it towered blood red over the battlefield near the center of the battle. Striking fear into the superstitious. History recorded an old Scotch lady saying, “Oh, child, it is a terrible omen.” She continued, “Such lights never burn, save for kings’ and heroes’ deaths.” Undeterred, the South plunged into battle despite the fear.
April 16-17, 1882 Storm again caused telegraph disruptions from the east coast to Omaha. A Priest in Cleveland recorded the most noteworthy fact about this storm. He noted that the solar storm affected people with nervous disorders. Becoming one of the earliest records of noting the changes in physical health with the solar storm.
On November 18, 1882, the telegraph transmissions were interrupted. Some stations burned, others had telegraph buttons melt. Greatly affected the Chicago Stock Exchange. Signal bells on train lines mysteriously started to ring. A sunspot sized at over 3 million miles was observed. Also was one of the first documented records of what we now call “STEVE” or “Jacobs Ladder”. One source records it as “Lastly, on November 17, a superb aurora was seen. The culminating feature was a mysterious beam of greenish light, appearing around six o’clock in the evening. It was shaped like a cigar and spanned many degrees in length. The beam rose in the east and crossed the sky. It moved at a much quicker pace, but almost as evenly as that of the sun, moon, or stars. It set in the west two minutes after its appearance.”
November 1, 1903 solar storm striking during the day disabled Western Union Telegraph lines. In Europe, particularly in Switzerland, the power went out, stranding cable cars. Many papers picked up the story around the world.
September 25, 1909 – Telegraph lines throughout the US were affected. There was documentation that some telegraph wires carried over 500 volts. They also lit resistance lamps in Telegraph offices.
May 24, 1915 German radio signals were scrambled. hampering intelligence gathering and wartime transmissions. This swung the war in the favor of British.
March 9, 1918, in a reversal of fate, this solar storm helped German bombers see targets over Britain. There were news articles about the Ojibwa’s prophecy. People reported “fires” that were just auroras because the auroras were pumpkin and red.
By 1921, the New York Railroad Storm revealed how vulnerable transportation systems were. A massive solar storm disrupted telegraph and telephone systems. At 7:04 AM on May 15, the entire signal system of the New York Central Railroad below 125th Street failed. Operations halted completely. The switching system also ceased functioning. A fire followed in the control tower at 57th Street and Park Avenue. This is where they began to discover that the rock formations along the East Coast are problematic. These formations can bounce energy back up, causing ground currents. Cables, telegraph, and cables were affected all over Europe.
Between 1921 and the storms to follow, there were widespread reports of people reporting fires, which were really Aurora. Continue radio and telegraph disruptions. We will mention many here, but for brevity not mention them individually. But this gives us a high instance of recording pumpkin and red color auroras, rather than just green.
January 25, 1938 The Fatima Storm was seen over the whole of Europe and Asia. It interrupted the Telegraph transmission of the Japanese invasion of China. In Vienna, Princess Juliana was born under a brilliant aurora show. This show was said to be an omen of good luck. The Salzburg fire department was scrambled to put out the “fire” only to find the fire in the sky. As were other fire departments from London to San Diego. Bahama’s people thought a ship was on fire. Astronomers in New England said the lights differed from earlier auroral displays. The lights displayed such intensity, color, and direction of the beams. The immense arches of crimson light radiated from a brilliant Auroral Crown near the zenith. They shifted through areas of green and blue instead of appearing as usual in parallel lines. It was also considered to be one of the Fatima Prophesies by Roman Catholics worldwide
March 25, 1940 The Easter Sunday Storm again caused pandemonium with phone wires, telegraph, and radio signals. There were reports that phone wires fused in North Dakota. Hundreds of miles of phone wires were rendered useless as they began to carry voltage of up to 600 volts. In the Atlantic Cable between Scotland and Newfoundland, voltages up to 2,600 volts were recorded during the storm. Coast Guard radio stations were unable to use radios. It causes chaos in New York by messing with generators and power.
On September 18, 1941, radios were the newest technology. Everyone was tuned into the World Series game. During a home game of the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Pittsburgh Pirates, the broadcast went down. It lasted for 15 minutes. By the time it came back up the pirates had hit four runs. One can not say Lady Aurora doesn’t have a sense of humor, for what happened next ….Next up Brooklyn Dodgers was facing the New York Yankees, who lost seven games to four. Then on Sept 19, at 11:45 AM, station WAAT was broadcasting some recorded music by Bing Crosby. Suddenly, transmissions became crossed with phone signals. Technicians did nothing much about it, and at first it was faint. with a rather randy phone conversation. Two men were discussing the hot date. Let’s just say they were doing a play-by-play of the home run that happened on said date. In outrage, listeners called the station for allowing it to happen during family listening time. Let’s hope they didn’t mention names in that conversation.
In July 19, 1947 we began to record Air Traffic being delayed due to solar storms. Electromagnetic energy could disrupt not just the radio waves they used for communication but their instrumentation.
August 20, 1950 solar storm affected radio messages about the Korean War. Interrupting Press and commercial messages blacked out from the US, Europe, Japan, and South America.
February 24, 1956 Know as the Acheron Submarine Storm, recorded the most intense auroras to date. Though not as large as a Carrington Event. This storm caused a British submarine to briefly go missing, causing a full-scale alarm. The Acheron had been expected to report her position at 5:05 EST while on Arctic patrol. When it didn’t manage to do so, emergency rescue preparations started. Both ships and rescue planes began searching the waters between Iceland and Greenland. In Boston, Channel 7 TV viewers were treated to broadcasts from Channel 7 in Manchester Vermont. While Channel 4 viewers watched a program on the same channel, televised from Providence, Rhode Island. A bizarre voice over happened as a romance movie got crossed with a a boxing match. The crossover produced a strange narration. It included the boxing match, ‘Smith gave him a left to the jaw and a short right to the stomach…. But darling, we love each other so very much… a left hook to the jaw flattened Smith… Kiss me again, my sweet.’ Again, Lady Aurora has a Strange sense of humor.
January 25, 1957 – Uranium and aurora blamed in plane crash
February 11, 1958 – Radio blackout cuts the US off from the rest of the world. this was followed over the years by dozens of storms.
August 2, 1972 – Now referred to as The Space Age Storm. Solar astronomers reported that Active Region 331 flared for 15 hours and recorded it as X X-class 2 storm. The next day, the Pioneer 9 spacecraft detected a shock wave from the first of these flares at 11:24 UT. There was a sudden change in the solar wind speed from 350 to 585 km/sec. This enabled William Ellis to be the first scientist to predict a solar storm. Phone service was disrupted all over the US and Canada. Paul Linger of the Denver Zoo became the first to notice the impact on pigeons. He noted that the electromagnetic energy of the storms disrupted their ability to navigate.
The Halloween Storm, which took place on October 29, 2003 the second-fastest solar storm. Falling behind only the Carrington Event, which took 17 hours. It reached Earth in about 19 hours. This was eventually, after discussion, rated as an X Class 34 storm. These intense storms disrupted GPS, satellite communications, and aviation. The transatlantic cable experienced voltage surges, threatening global internet traffic. It was clear that even fiber-optic infrastructure wasn’t immune. Part of Canada was without power for up to 3 days, due to a transformer that blew.
Then came the Mother’s Day Storm of 2024—also known as the Gannon Storm. From May 10–13, Earth was hit by a G5-class geomagnetic storm, the strongest since 2003. Auroras were visible as far south as Mexico and Florida. Radio blackouts disrupted aviation and emergency services, and GPS systems faltered. It took out the internet servers of major companies and caused widespread internet glitches. The storm injected ultra-relativistic electrons into Earth’s radiation belts, challenging long-held scientific models and surprising even seasoned space weather experts. This particular storm will go on to be studied for generations.
This now leads us to the future and what we face. Presently, we are undergoing a magnetic field shift on Earth. It is weakening the magnetic bubble that protects Earth from Solar storms and space in general. This is allowing much smaller storms to have the effects of these much stronger storms. Scientists of today are worried that we are overdue for a large solar storm. If one of those storms were to hit today, it could destroy our electric universe. It will leave us in the dark ages for up to 10 years. We should be addressing that future and thinking about how we can protect our electric universe. Particularly, the use of Electric cars, Battery use in Motor homes, and backup power in houses. Are we putting ourselves at serious risk?
