(Zero Hedge)—The Space Weather Prediction Center of NOAA warned on Friday night about an “extreme” G5 geomagnetic storm impacting Earth, which lasted into the early morning hours. While there have been disruptions in communications, no significant failures in the US power grid have been reported. Intense solar storms can disrupt the digital economy.
G5 represents the highest level of a geomagnetic storm on a scale from G1 to G5. This intense space weather event led to disturbances in some satellite orientation and operations, as well as deterioration in radio communications that rely on ionospheric transmission. Additionally, there were some outages in GPS networks.
“The solar storm has knocked out almost all long-distance shortwave radio,” Captain John Konrad, CEO of Captain, wrote on X.
The solar storm has knocked out almost all long distance shortwave radio: pic.twitter.com/ZTqIUEFRza
— John Ʌ Konrad V (@johnkonrad) May 11, 2024
Yet, no significant impacts on the power grid have been reported.
Elon Musk reported hours ago, “Major geomagnetic solar storm happening right now. Biggest in a long time. Starlink satellites are under a lot of pressure, but holding up so far.”
Major geomagnetic solar storm happening right now. Biggest in a long time. Starlink satellites are under a lot of pressure, but holding up so far. pic.twitter.com/TrEv5Acli2
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 11, 2024
The last G5 storm to hit Earth this strong was in October 2003, which sparked power outages across Sweden and damaged transformers in South Africa. Since then, the economy’s digitalization has dramatically increased, which means there’s an increasing risk of grid failures and disruptions in communication networks.
We’ve outlined this in space weather notes over the years:
- Digital Economy Disruption Possible As “Terminator Event” Suggests Strongest Sunspot Cycle On Record Imminent
- The Next Big Geomagnetic Storm Poses An Astronomical Risk To Modern Man
- Solar Storms Can Devastate Entire Civilizations.
- Solar Storms Present Danger Of Blackouts For Major East Coast Cities
Last year, we pointed out that the current solar cycle (Solar Cycle 25) is expected to peak sometime in 2025.
This means the solar maximum is nearing or has already arrived.
Even the federal government has started to prepare the nation for a space weather event with the 2016 executive order signed by the Obama administration titled “Coordinating Efforts to Prepare the Nation for Space Weather Events.”
Two decades ago, the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta wrote a paper titled “Playing the Field: Geomagnetic Storms and the Stock Market,” outlining that “people affected by geomagnetic storms may be more inclined to sell stocks.” However, stocks are mostly traded by algos in today’s market…
Northern lights were reported across the country last night by X users:
Northern lights over NE Ohio. pic.twitter.com/FrdW1pR9M5
— Michael Collier (@MikeACollier) May 11, 2024
northern lights in upstate NY ? pic.twitter.com/N68FFiaelp
— ??? ??????? (@bfav_) May 11, 2024
North Georgia reporting in: WE HAVE NORTHERN LIGHTS ?? pic.twitter.com/tsfSH7Bn69
— Kate ? (@katebomb) May 11, 2024
Northern lights in Garrett County .. #deepcreek #home pic.twitter.com/ffRcOE64C3
— Richann Rodeheaver (@pudrodeheaver) May 11, 2024
The most powerful solar storm to rock Earth in recorded history, the Carrington Event, occurred in September 1859. It sparked fires in telegraph systems across Europe and North America.
Independent Journalism Is Dying
Ever since President Trump’s miraculous victory, we’ve heard an incessant drumbeat about how legacy media is dying. This is true. The people have awakened to the reality that they’re being lied to by the self-proclaimed “Arbiters of Truth” for the sake of political expediency, corporate self-protection, and globalist ambitions.
But even as independent journalism rises to fill the void left by legacy media, there is still a huge challenge. Those at the top of independent media like Joe Rogan, Dan Bongino, and Tucker Carlson are thriving and rightly so. They have earned their audience and the financial rewards that come from it. They’ve taken risks and worked hard to get to where they are.
For “the rest of us,” legacy media and their proxies are making it exceptionally difficult to survive, let alone thrive. They still have a stranglehold over the “fact checkers” who have a dramatic impact on readership and viewership. YouTube, Facebook, and Google still stifle us. The freer speech platforms like Rumble and 𝕏 can only reward so many of their popular content creators. For independent journalists on the outside looking in, our only recourse is to rely on affiliates and sponsors.
But even as it seems nearly impossible to make a living, there are blessings that should not be disregarded. By highlighting strong sponsors who share our America First worldview, we have been able to make lifelong connections and even a bit of revenue to help us along. This is why we enjoy symbiotic relationships with companies like MyPillow, Jase Medical, and Promised Grounds. We help them with our recommendations and they reward us with money when our audience buys from them.
The same can be said about our preparedness sponsor, Prepper All-Naturals. Their long-term storage beef has a 25-year shelf life and is made with one ingredient: All-American Beef.
Even our faith-driven precious metals sponsor helps us tremendously while also helping Americans protect their life’s savings. We are blessed to work with them.
Independent media is the future. In many ways, that future is already here. While the phrase, “the more the merrier,” does not apply to this business because there are still some bad actors in the independent media field, there are many great ones that do not get nearly enough attention. We hope to change that one content creator at a time.
Thank you and God Bless,
JD Rucker
