Media Reports About a Massive Geomagnetic Storm Hitting Earth on March 18 Are Inaccurate, NOAA Says (newsweek.com)

Several news outlets this week are reporting that Earth is expecting a "massive magnetic storm" on March 18. Yeah, so that's not happening, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) told Newsweek and other outlets. From a report: And they would know: Not only does NOAA help people build forecasts for weather here on Earth, they also predict space weather events like geomagnetic storms. "This story is not plausible in any way, shape or form," Bob Rutledge, who leads NOAA's Space Weather Forecast Center, told Newsweek via e-mail. "Things are all quiet for space weather, and the sun is essentially spotless." The magnetic storm's "imminent" arrival was one of Monday morning's top science news stories, according to Google News. But most coverage appeared to be based on a misinterpretation of a chart posted on Russia's Lebedev Institute's website showing a minor uptick in geomagnetic activity on the 18th. That elevated activity is expected to be a minor storm at most.

Comments

Ok that's why

[Anonymous Coward]

This is why I don't get my weather information from "news" outlets.

Re:Ok that's why

[rtb61]

Well, make no mistake, if you do not prepare, then yes, you are fucking doomed and it is only a matter of time. Perhaps this exaggerated story is not all bad, if it makes people think about the consequences of a real one which will inevitably happen, and in an unprotected digital world cause extremely severe ramifications, that will take months to repair. No manual systems in place to repair digital systems damaged to the extent they are incapable of repairing themselves. This causing repair time to blow out disastrously. Take no notice, no one will care, until it is too late and then everyone will be complaining about it on the internet, oh wait, they won't because the internet will be down for quite some time. For the simple, oh look, major solar storm, all the companies computers down, have to drive to work, oh wait my car doesn't work, it needs fixing, I'll call the repairman, oh wait the phone doesn't work. So can't even get to work, to try to use a computer that doesn't to order replacements, across a network that doesn't work, to a spare parts company who can not receive it because their computers are down and there is no staff to fill the order and can not even find the product in the warehouse and on it goes. A major solar storm would be a major disaster and make no mistake, the consequences would be really bad for quite some time. Imagine a modern digital police force required to operate manually for a month.