I wish they would stop go around scaring people just so they can sell their silly weather radios at Radio Shack.

linko

Feds warn solar storms may add to Y2K woes By Jennifer Jones, InfoWorld Electric

U.S. government officials are predicting that the country's communications systems and power grid may suffer from outages in the coming months as a result of mounting solar activity and an onslaught of solar storms.

Officials from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) warned recently that the sun is about to enter its "Solar Maximum" phase -- a period during the sun's 11-year cycle when it becomes most active.

James Baker, NOAA administrator, said the government can now predict the impact of solar storms for the first time.

"These storms may be a real Y2K problem," Baker said.

Scientists are predicting a flurry of phenomena -- space storms, radiation showers and aurora borealis -- that may affect the nation's public systems.

The storms could also impact the Global Positioning System and other technology infrastructures, according to the agency. In 1989, the province of Quebec suffered a blackout when a geomagnetic storm overloaded power lines.

Images of solar storms are posted online.

-- lisa (lisa@work.now), November 15, 1999

Answers

Great news...the last Solar Max, AM listeners could sometimes pick up stations in the Far East on ordinary AM radios. Bottom line, Short Wave should work just fine, and therefore no news "blackout" will be possible!

-- K. Stevens (Kstevens@ It's ALL going away in January.com), November 15, 1999.

Lisa;

The solar maximum is well documented event. We can predict about when the max will be but not how big it will be (just like predicting

the weather). These solar storms can cause lots of satalite problems and have knocked power grids off line (canada). It will be an interesting year.

-- at (at@at.at), November 15, 1999.

Lisa, The scientists are trying to sell weather radios? (You;re joking, I guess.)

-- Mara (MaraWayne@aol.com), November 15, 1999.

Of course they are trying to sell radios. How else would they fund their research???

-- ..- (dit@dot.dash), November 15, 1999.

Yes, Mara, I think Lisa's kidding. It's a bit of satire on the polly/troll position re Y2k being a non-event and hyped only by shills for dried food companies.

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), November 15, 1999.

eh...solar storms, no biggie. "They" can fix it right? Quick trip to the Sun...change a couple of chips...three day solar storm...no problem.

Toast, burnt on both sides : )

Mike

==================================================================

-- Michael Taylor (mtdesign3@aol.com), November 15, 1999.

Mike..Hi!..Burnt toast on both sides? Nope, I have it on good authority that the repair will be done at NIGHT! :)

Ray, about 30 min. into dark in OKC, OK

-- Ray (raymondo@prodigy.net), November 15, 1999.

Lisa,

I thought we were supposed to have some problems today because of the CME. Any news on that?

Tess

-- Tess (preparingfortheworst@prayingforthebest.com), November 15, 1999.

I have it on good authority that in case of severe extinction level events from the sun, that you should prepare for 3 days as you would for a volcano in your backyard, hurricane, 9.0 earthquake, tidal wave, or a plague of locusts. If this occurs at the same time as Y2K, increase your holdings to 3.5 days, and an extra gallon of water.

Actually, big business would not allow the sun to cause problems, as they have too much money still to make, and many stock options to cash in. Therefore, only the extreme foolish need prepare.

-- Bill (bill@tinfoil.com), November 15, 1999.

bill, have to go change underwear now

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

-- lisa (lisa@work.now), November 16, 1999.

LOL Bill...thats awesome!!

They actually made a pretty decent TV movie about a CME called "Inferno". It was decent enough to be put on video tape and end up at Blockbuster. I rented it the other night because I missed it when it was on TV. You should pick it up. It is much better quality than the Y2K movie, and had some good scenes related to social unrest. (by "good" I mean they seemed somewhat accurate)

-- C. Hill (pinionsmachine@hotmail.com), November 22, 1999.