I'm reposting this strange story from yesterday because I just heard on the news that we are expecting
aurora borealis tonight in the Mid-Atlantic. That nearly never happens this far south, so if you live further north, you should expect quite a show tonight
Watch out for the
space storm.
A strong dose of space weather is forecast to hit Earth Friday, potentially disrupting satellite communications and posing a threat to power grids on Earth.
Hard to believe, huh? But unless you have a space cell phone, it gets worse:
Even cell phones can act up during solar storms, causing dropped calls.
Space forecasters (at the NOAA Space Environment Center’s Space Weather Operations) predict "stormy weather over the next couple of weeks", but those guys never get it right anyway. I had a perfectly nice space picnic ruined by a blown forecast.
In fact, I'd be willing to bet they blew the call on
September 1-2, 1859.
Even 144 years ago, many of Earth's inhabitants realized something momentous had just occurred. Within hours, telegraph wires in both the United States and Europe spontaneously shorted out, causing numerous fires, while the Northern Lights, solar-induced phenomena more closely associated with regions near Earth's North Pole, were documented as far south as Rome, Havana and Hawaii, with similar effects at the South Pole.
No dropped cell phone calls, though.
Update: New poll:
What can save the planet?