A severe solar storm is currently blasting Earth that could stress power grids even more as the US deals with disruptions from Hurricane Milton that hit Florida.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) issued an extreme geomagnetic storm watch for the next two days after the sun released a powerful a explosion of energy on Tuesday.
The level 4 geomagnetic storm began hitting Earth at around 9:30am ET and is expected to continue through Friday.
It could cause radio blackouts, satellite disruptions and GPS issues.
It may also damage or disrupt the power grid, which could add more misery as America reels from the devastating aftermath of Hurricane Milton.
G4 storms warnings are rare, marking this only the second one that NOAA has issued since 2005.
Officials are warning the US to prepare for a severe solar storm that could put even more demand on power grids stressed by Hurricane Milton
New York City officials are among those warning the public about the impending G4 storm.
Aries Dela Cruz, a spokesperson for New York City Emergency Management, said: ‘We’re monitoring for effects, but the public doesn’t need to take any actions at this time.
‘We obviously don’t want to alarm people. We just want people to not be surprised if their Google Maps stopped working or anything like that.’
Sunspot AR3848 – a dark, fast-growing region of strong magnetic fields on the sun’s surface – produced a strong X1.8-class solar flare, which can trigger blackouts and stress the power grid.
Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation that come from a release of magnetic energy associated with sunspots. They are the largest explosive events in the solar system.
After the solar flare erupted, a second blast of high energy particles and solar plasma made a direct line for Earth. This is called a coronal mass ejection, or CME.
The CME is what is causing the G4 storm.
It hurtled toward us at roughly 750 to 800 miles per second and reached Earth Thursday morning, triggering a disruption in the magnetosphere – the region of space surrounding our planet that is dominated by its magnetic field.
This disruption is known as a geomagnetic storm. It reached G4 strength at approximately 1:00pm ET, according to NOAA.
Geomagnetic storms can also cause dazzling aurora displays to appear at unusually low latitudes, and they could be visible over ‘much of the northern half of the country’ on Thursday, ‘maybe as far south as Alabama to northern California,’ according to NOAA.
But like solar flares, they can also trigger radio blackouts, disrupt satellite communications and damage power grids.
‘While the public does not need to take any action at this time, we always encourage everyone to stay informed through Notify NYC and having an emergency plan in place that includes a Go Bag with an AM radio,’ NYC Emergency Management posted on X, formerly Twitter.
Geomagnetic storms can also cause dazzling aurora displays to appear at unusually low latitudes, and they could be visible over ‘much of the northern half of the country’ on Thursday, ‘maybe as far south as Alabama to northern California,’ according to NOAA
Though these events are rare, this isn’t the first high-intensity geomagnetic storm to occur this year.
On May 10, Earth experienced the strongest solar storm in two decades when a G5, or ‘extreme’ storm hit. This triggered one of the strongest displays of auroras on record in the past 500 years.
This week’s solar activity adds to mounting evidence that the sun has entered solar maximum, the period during its 11-year cycle when solar activity is at its peak.
In 2019, scientists predicted that solar maximum would begin around July 2025. But as the sun’s activity ramped up over the course of 2024, it became clear that this peak would arrive much sooner than expected, prompting experts to revise their forecast.
The sun has already shot out 41 X-class solar flares this year. That’s more than have occurred in the last nine years combined, according to spaceweather.com.
In an average year, X-class solar flares only occur around 10 times.
Solar maximum could last for at least another year, so we can expect to see plenty more intense solar flares, CMEs and geomagnetic storms battering our planet in 2025.
