Beyond the purty lights…
That storm resulted in power outages in Sweden and damaged transformers in South Africa, NOAA said.
A G5 geomagnetic storm can cause “widespread voltage control problems and protective system problems can occur, some grid systems may experience complete collapse or blackouts,” according to NOAA’s storm scale.
A Level 6 K-index is expected through Saturday evening, which means the storm could impact the power grid at latitudes north of 55 degrees, which is north of the contiguous United States.
GPS systems, satellite navigation and other technologies could also be impacted.
The powerful geomagnetic storm that will make the northern lights visible to much of the US has been upgraded to a Level 5, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric announced in an updated warning.“Extreme” G5 conditions reached Earth from the sun shortly before 7 p.m. Friday night — the first...
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