Lee Jordan .org.uk

Three major storms were tracked after Katrina, Maria was on track for Iceland, but instead hit norway. In the UK last nights awful weather could have been the edges of such a storm. Fact is a (downgraded) Hurricane has just hit Europe after tracking a unusual path, that swa it drop off American radars last week and was downgraded to a tropical depression.

“The two storms sprung out of the Caribbean last week but headed northeast instead of towards the US mainland. By the time they hit the Nordic area, they’re expected to have lost much of their punch.” Source

Question remains now, if this happens again will there be a hand over of data from American agencies to European ones, noting Norway isn’t too far away from where I am now (in the scheme of things), noting that a hurricane tracked to Europe and noting recent solar events, it makes for an interesting story.

“Maria hit the western shores of Scandinavia with south-southwestern winds blowing at an average speed of between 75 and 90 kilometers (47 to 56 miles) per hour.”

Roughly two days after the start of intense geomagnetic storming of the planet, the lights go out in LA. I’m not about to even consider this is a warning for sleeper cells to leave the area, if it happens in Melborne, I will of course reconsider.

As the September nights draw in I know where my torch is, do you?

To read more about Geomagnetically Induced Currents and how they are linked to solar storms and how they can knock out power grids, cause traffic lights to fail, bring chaos to a populated area yada yada yada click here

“The Los Angeles Times reported in its online edition that a spokesman for the county Office of Emergency Management said the massive failure was caused after an employee ‘inadvertenly cut a power cable’ at a DWP substation in West Los Angeles.” Source

In the interests of non-bias reporting a contradiction to my theroy, even so certain agencies want to down play the threat from the sun, truth is we don’t know what truth is!

“Fire officials said they received reports of people stuck in elevators, and traffic was snarled at intersections throughout the city when stop lights went dark. Some neighboring cities also were affected. The Police Department went on ‘full tactical alert’, meaning no officers were allowed to leave duty.” Source

The whole power outage thing after solar storms isn’t even suprising to me anymore …. this is me smiling basking in knowledge that I’m now passing on to you, which is even better than finding it out myself. The sun can cause power failures, on this occasion I’m not saying it has, but 7 X-Class Flares in 4 days? Undeniable interest in news events are sure to follow.

Channel 4 just aired a documentary about the Tornado that hit South Birmingham, UK back at the end of July. Facinating, bizare to think it happened down the road. I’d be well up for retraining as a meteorologist, obviously with a space weather interest. The F scale relates to major tornados and as most non-US tornadoes only reach F2 or F3 another scale is used for non-US events, and the Birmingham event rated at the higher end of the T Scale.

There was a defence of the Met Office not issuing a warning, yeah totaly acceptable, very hard to predict, although a group of amatuers called the tornado before it hit. Following a theme of preparing for more extreme weather I just looked at our house and found the places to best avoid collapse, be that wind or earthquake, changes in our environment are occuring, we can’t stop them or even predict them, we can only prepare to weather the storms.

All this couldn’t come at a more timely moment for me as I have been reading about how solar storms can impact the weather here. We are currently expriencing an extreme amount of solar storming, at a solar minimum where such large scale events are rare, which makes it even more interesting.

North Birmingham has been hard hit by panic buying of Petrol. I filled up yesterday not out of forward planning, even so half the pumps were dry, I doubt I’ll be filling up for another week and a half perhaps a little more, which is normal for my 70mpg?

“Organisers of the protest, which is planned to start at 6am on Wednesday, said they would not be organising a repeat of blockades which brought Britain to a standstill in 2000. ‘I strongly urge against blockades,’ said Andrew Spence, from the protest group Fuel Lobby.” Source

Firstly this protest isn’t about car drivers, secondly public transport gets taxed as much as a car driver and thirdly many transport companies can’t compete with Europe, because Diesel is so expensive, petrol just caught it up that’s all, we still don’t have the most expensive Unleaded petrol in Europe. I agree the tax on Diesel should come down, but even so petrol reliant activities like volunteer and carer journeys not to mention traveling medical staff, esp in rural areas is just as important as getting those burgers to McDonnalds ….. think about it. It all comes under considerarion when you mention peak oil, some think this is peak oil, some think we have 5 years of headonisim remaining before the real problems start to increase …. live the dream!

The premium pumps are well stocked, if you don’t mind the cost and the wait for the driver in front to get to a wet pump. Read more by clicking the title …

The interplanetary index that shows the blows of solar flares on magnetic feilds, goes off the scale as solar storms continue. You can keep updated on this from the NOAA page here

Red is not so good, this weeks solar storms have been quite agressive, it’s not over yet, it just might have only begun, on the other hand the sunspot group could be running out of steam, let’s hope so

This sobering post from the ECTV newsletter reads:

“now sunspot region 808 has rotated into position to cause “Earth Directed” flares and CME’s (coronal mass ejections). From this point on, and for the next 23 days, each and every flare has the potential for a glancing or direct hit to Earth. When the charged particles hit our protective magnetic field, the magnetic field shifts as if cranking tightly on a jar top. When this occurs, it in turn, causes a shift in the jet stream, often causing it to drop down low enough to disturb weather patterns.” Source

Violence Erupts in Belfast as the KP Index spikes and geomagnetic storm rage across the world, also Isreal show a sign of peace and people in Britian start panic buying the petrol ahead of fuel protests. The anniversary of 9/11 is marked and MI5 cheifs are preparing us to have more rights stolen.

Just saying about the human connection to solar storms. These are the news events of the time of the 6th X-Class Flare in less than half a week.

Queues are already forming this Sunday locally, everyone is filling up ahead of this coming week. Only half of the pumps were fully operational today and the price has lowered since last weeks highs. The Government say a response to a protest over the price of fuel would be to actually ration the fuel.

The most expensive station in the country is in .. Wolverhampton : £1:07 and £1:06.9, but what strikes me as odd is the fact that people are blaming the Government for this when they aren’t blaming the Government for British Gas saying bills are going up by 14%. There’s a whole load of “tax” issues that are blinding people on the Petrol issue, one guy said well why does a hurricane affect our prices and I thought oh jees, wake up. Then we get the folks saying, OPEC should drill more, well hello you can’t ask for the impossible they are already over said quotas by about 2mbpd (million barrels per day) and since the iRaq war oil output from that country has dropped drastically due to there being a lack of secuity focus on the feilds. There’s a serious “How dumb are you? if the war was about Oil you did more than fail, you balls it up good and proper” going round in my head and yeah I personally got involved in this sauce recently after 23 years of being addicted to oil by proxy (traveling miles to school, getting my food from a supermarket) but at least my eyes are open.

This is our first taste of the coming energy crisis, it’s simple supply and demand, and we have to deal with it because we can’t ask the impossible, we can’t get what isn’t there, we can only look at living in a more sustainable way, and that means cutting down on internet shopping too! It goes far beyond the forecourts, I wish we would seriously collectivly wake up to reality and act now to change our lifestyles, collectivly, it’s not about petrol, it drills far more deeply into everyday life, we have to look at how we use energy and where we get it from, and dhurh hello, the sun suplies enough energy in one day to power the United States for a week …… where’s the disconnect?

Utillty bills are next, fuel poverty will once again be an issue in the UK.

If this interests you please please, pickup a copy of Solar Rain from Earthchangestv.com. A 6th X Class solar flare has blasted off from the Sun as SOHO returns to give us a full view of the huge sunspot region now known as 808.

Don’t take my word for it, I’m of the opinion that these events affect our weather, if not then our power grids and our technology. I’m nowhere near expert in this subject, not even close to novice level but from looking at the recent 5 minute XRay graphs I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that the sun is gearing up for something to almost match the Halloween storms of 2003, except blast the big one right at us. With no lack of power the huge sunspot that will be visible to the unaided eye (be careful, use filters) might turn to face earth with as much risk for X-Class flares as right now.

Urm and that might not be a good thing for the world! Let’s just say if a hurricane or troppical storm hit Iceland because of this, at least I partly called it, before it happened. Radiation storms continue, radio blackouts affect the polar regions, as this weekend the Aurora’s kick in. It’s exciting to see this happening, six major events in a few days, I’ve never seen it before and rumor (and it is that) rumor has it NASA doesn’t want to detail how much of a risk we face from a direct hit with a mega flare.

Spaceweather.com, their front page for today is dominated with solar activity, just a few days ago they were proclaiming the sun to be blank and inactive.

This news as pump prices fall 2p in my area, with 60% of the country unable to charge more than 99.9p a ltre due to technology restraints.

Two weeks and perhaps we might start to see the chaos of 2000. Thing is yeah this isn’t a worry only to drivers. How did that food you just ate, get to you? Every facet of our modern day life relies on oil. How did your favourite band get to your hometown? Think about it.

“Fuel Lobby has threatened to block all UK refineries on 14 September, as the price of unleaded petrol rose to more than £1 a litre in parts of the UK.” Source

“Organisers of the 2000 fuel protest, which caused severe disruption when refineries were blocked, say they will act again if fuel tax is not cut.” Source

An example of violence increasing under 5 X Class solar falres? There is no evidence whatsoever to support the effect of sunspots on human behavoiur, it’s a very interesting angle : Source