In the early hours of early September 1859, the ordinary night sky suddenly burst into a flash of light!
First, it was stunning streaks of red and green –– brushstrokes of glowing light painting the Florida sky. A few days later, the blinding white light at 1:00 AM tricked Rocky Mountain miners into thinking it was morning –– and people in Panama could read newspapers outside.
But this light show was far from simply spectacular. It brought something rather unsettling.
Electrical surges raced through telegraph lines, disrupting communication and sending the developing technology into total disarray!
The culprit? A geomagnetic storm later called the Carrington Event.
At the time, the electric telegraph system was nearly the only network available to disrupt. But today? Electricity runs almost every aspect of our lives, such as food, water, transportation, communication, banking, and healthcare.
If a solar storm of that magnitude struck our society today, the ramifications would be drastic!
Keep reading to see the light on this historic storm –– and what it can teach us today about preparing for power failure.
A Shock to the System
The trouble began when English astronomer, Richard Carrington, noticed an intense flash of bright, white light coming from the cluster of sunspots he was studying.
This phenomenon was immediately followed by a coronal mass ejection, or CME –– a massive cloud of magnetically charged plasma that comes from the sun.
Just seventeen hours later, the dark night sky lit up like daytime –– all thanks to that magnetically charged plasma interacting with the magnetic field of planet Earth.
This disturbance triggered the geomagnetic storm we now call the Carrington Event.
Even though this storm produced some breathtaking auroras, the effects closer to the ground were not nearly as pretty. As electrical currents surged through telegraph wires, equipment malfunctioned and messages were cut off.
Some telegraph operators reported strong enough electricity to power their equipment after disconnecting it from usual batteries!
In other words, the Carrington Event was much more than a dazzling display of sparkling lights –– it proved a vulnerability in the convenience of electrical power.
When the Past and Present Collide
Back in 1859, telegraph lines were among the only electrical networks that a geomagnetic storm could attack.
Today? Just about every essential service and utility relies on an electrical connection:
- Power grids and high-voltage transformers
- Satellites, GPS, and navigation systems
- Radio, telephone, television, and internet communications
- Fuel pipelines and distribution systems
A geomagnetic storm could create a swarm of power problems –– the lights are just a flash of what might fail! Systems related to refrigeration, water treatment, heating and cooling, fuel pumps, financial access, medical equipment, and more might become limited, or even unavailable, during an extended outage.
And when we mention an extended outage, we mean it. While a geomagnetic storm of the same magnitude as the Carrington Event happens once every five hundred years, similar storms half as intense reoccur roughly every fifty.
And the damage could take weeks –– or longer –– to repair.
Preparing to Be Powerless
The good news? The next geomagnetic storm should not come as a complete surprise.
An advanced fleet of environmental observation satellites –– the GOES-R series, which is more than 22,000 miles above the equator –– monitors the sun for solar storms. This offers satellite operators the warning and notice they need to take protective action!
But even with that warning, an extended outage will remain an inconvenience –– one that you can prepare for!
You can start by considering what your household would lose if the grid dropped during a storm. Here are a couple of components your plan should account for:
- Shelf-stable food and drinking water
- Candles, flashlights, lanterns, and extra batteries
- Backup power for phones and essential equipment
- A battery-powered or hand-crank emergency radio
- Printed contact information and local maps
- Safe, off-grid cooking and heating tools
- Cash and fuel in case certain systems stop working
Supplies like these will keep you comfortable and safe during a solar storm –– and any other occurrence of extreme weather, equipment failure or collapse, or any event that dumps you in the dark.
The Twinkling Takeaway
The Carrington Event may have happened more than 165 years ago, but the weak spots it exposed are as relevant today as ever.
We cannot control what simmers on the surface of the sun. We can, however, reduce our reliance on the systems that sustain our most basic needs.
A little preparation now could keep your household from failing alongside the grid –– just in case the night sky ever lights up like that again!
Check in with The Essentials Blog each week for expert education, tips, and resources to make your shift to self-reliance as smooth as possible!