Earth Will Only Have 12 Hours To Prepare For Massive Solar Storm

Yahoo News ^ | 7/29/15

[Kartographer]

Trains will be disrupted, power will go out, satellite signals will go wonky - that’s what we have to look forward to when the sun next has a melt down, and we’re unlikely to get more than 12 hours warning.

In a new government document, the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills has laid out its Space Weather Preparedness Strategy, outlining the risks of unsettled space weather as well as what it plans to do about them.

[Kartographer]

As funny as that is on the surface I would almost bet it would happen depending how long the outage was.

[MHGinTN]

Being unable to avoid it, we could get ready for it, with lots of candles, food supplies, means to obtain clean water, tools for defending against ‘animals’ seeking our demise for our supplies or just for the hell of it, and techniques and seeds for growing food.

[umgud]

I am prepared.

[Godzilla]

The premise of One Second After is an EMP attack. Suppose that would be like a major Carrington event

Not exactly correct. The premise is a Nuclear EMP, not a solar. they have their own characteristic. A solar can be planned for and much damage prevented by unplugging stuff and shutting it off. A nuke EMP doesn't care and will fry it anyway.

[tbw2]

I think the short story was better than the Outer Limits episode.
I wonder what a remake would look like, such as people checking the internet and watching the world-wide burn online before sitting in the dark, unable to do anything.

[tbw2]

I think that’s from Hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy.

[dfwgator]

You think correctly.

[metmom]

Interesting........

[DuncanWaring]

Possibly.

Ever read “Lucifer’s Hammmer”?

[Old Sarge]

I gotta see that one again, it’s been a long time...

[Marcella]

A solar flare ejects from the sun and goes in a straight line, therefore it can be predicted as to where it will hit. If it ejects in a straight line toward our Earth, we will know where it is going to hit on Earth. Maybe it will hit Iran or Russia or the United States. When it hits Earth, it still goes in a straight line and will enter the first electric line it hits and keep going until it reaches the end of that grid. Say it hits Russia - our grid will be okay because our grid is not connected to theirs, [at least I don’t think it is. :o)]

If it hits us, yes, power equipment will be destroyed as it flies through the grid. Equipment that uses power to operate will not be hurt if not plugged in. Since we would have some advance warning, unplug all equ8ipment from the wall including the fridge - ALL appliances, yes, unplug TV and your computer, everything that uses power.

Now, your equipment will still work if not plugged in, but the grid will be down for a very long time, likely years, so have a way to replace those important items that would go away if power was not there - water/food, all the items we talk about when preparing for a long term emergency.

[DuncanWaring]

It’s a book; too long to make a movie.

The meteor that hit a city in Siberia a few years ago makes the opposite point, though.

[metmom]

Good advice.

Thanks.

[metmom]

Something to keep in mind for September. I didn’t think of that as something we’d have to deal with.

[AppyPappy]

” A nuke EMP doesn’t care and will fry it anyway. “

The Soviets tried it on their own people and it was a failure.

[Old Sarge]

That's what I meant: you can see a book, too.

The Chelyabinsk event had zero warning for two reasons: one, the trajectory of the inbound came out of the Sun (just like a fighter pilot would dive on his target), and two, every telescope in the world at the time was watching the other rock sail peacefully past...

Now, the impactor in the Sudan a few years before that, the same people who blew the call on Chelyabinsk were high-fiving each other because they saw that one eight hours before it hit the atmosphere.

Now, I sure feel warm & fuzzy...

[DuncanWaring]

Me too.

[zek157]

Thanks for the distinction.

12 hrs to prepare would help shutting down stuff with a Carrington event. How much would that protect the grid>

[Godzilla]

12 hrs to prepare would help shutting down stuff with a Carrington event. How much would that protect the grid

Depends. The power lines serve to collect and amplify the electrical pulse - so we would need to shut down the grid, throw the breakers to isolate transformers and generators and ground everything.

[Marcella]

“Something to keep in mind for September. I didn’t think of that as something we’d have to deal with.”

metmom, if one thinks of every single threat to our existence, the list is long. What I have done, is prepare to live without any outside assistance, including all public utilities. I can lock my front door right now and live with a good standard of living for a very long time.

I've said before, in 1998, I got up one morning and used a pad and pen to document everything that wouldn't work if no public utility worked. What is the first thing you do when you get up - you head to the bathroom - I listed everything I did in there that required public utilities to work.

If power went away, there would be no trucks to deliver food, fuel to power plants and fuel to water utilities so water would stop coming out of the faucet.

I did that all day long and in the late afternoon, decided I would wash some clothes - damn, the washer and dryer wouldn't work, either, so listed that. Then, in the days and years after that day until now, I worked out a way to replace what I would lose so that I could still live well.

When hurricanes came through my town, I got practice to use all that while power was out for days at a time.

What I am saying is, no matter what the disaster is, if I'm still alive after it happens, I won't go into meltdown/panic, because I know I can deal with it and still enjoy my life.