8/3/10

Disasters in the News Aug. 3, 2010

Wow! Two posts in two days...  A new record for If It Hits the Fan!  There are a couple of imminent disaster risks in the news today I wanted to comment on.


Coronal Mass Ejection

Fox News ran this article today.  Seems there was a massive solar flare yesterday, which will reach Earth tonight.  While it will provide sky watchers with much larger Northern Lights in latitudes that seldom see them, it may also put satellites at risk.  NASA released information several years ago that reported that we are heading into the most intense period of solar activity since the massive solar storms of 1958.  We did not have the electronics then that we do now.  Solar activity in 1998-99 knocked out several satellites, including one that made 45 million alpha-numeric pagers useless for a couple days.  I remember wondering where my news reports and spot metal price updates were before I found out all pagers were down.  This Washington Post article discusses several power outages and electronics failures from solar storms in the latter half of the 20th century.  This website details problems caused by solar activity dating back to the 1850's.  Consider all those problems when we weren't dependent on electronics like we are today.

I'm sure that Wednesday morning, we'll wake up and 99% of our electrical and electronic capacity will be up and running.  But I think the threat from spiked solar activity over the next couple of years is something to be aware of, and we should look at possible ways to mitigate damage that may come.


Tropical Storm Colin

He currently has degenerated back to a depression.  The projected path puts the remnants hitting North Carolina or Virginia next Tuesday or Wednesday, but at a much weaker state.  We'll keep a eye on him, but it looks right now as if we have dodged another tropical bullet.

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