Quebec Power Outage Solar Flare

The quebec blackout was different because this one was caused by a solar storm. Six million people were affected and the ensuing blackout lasted more than 9 hours. And this storm was by some measures only about a third of the size of the carrington event dr beggan says.
quebec power outage solar flare

In 1989 a solar storm in quebec canada caused a power outage for as long as 90 hours in some places.

Quebec power outage solar flare. By solar storms history. On friday march 10 1989 astronomers witnessed a powerful explosion on the sun. Solar storms can cause power grids to fail at lower latitudes. Most newspapers that reported this event considered the spectacular aurora to be the most newsworthy aspect of the storm.

Another solar flare apparently caused a power failure in new zealand in 2001. The march 1989 geomagnetic storm occurred as part of severe to extreme solar storms during early to mid march 1989 the most notable being a geomagnetic storm that struck earth on march 13. March 13 1989 the quebec blackout storm. When the halloween storms of 2003 hit people saw a similar effect.

In 1989 a geomagnetic storm caused a nine hour power outage in quebec canada. And the quebec blackout was by no means. On march 13 1989 the entire province of quebec canada suffered an electrical power blackout. Solar flares tend to come in 11 year cycles and fluctuate in intensity.

Hundreds of blackouts occur in some part of north america every year. Other historically significant solar storms occurred later in 1989 during a very active period of solar cycle 22. Solar storms are impossible for earthlings to predict but we have observed the suns ability to disrupt our modern electric power system most significantly during the october 2003 dark halloween solar storm and earlier during the march 1989 quebec blackout event. A solar storm caused a power failure in quebec in 1989.

The onset time was exceptionally rapid. Est much of quebec province suddenly lost electrical power. Compared to the carrington event in 1859 this storm was only one third as large yet affected power supplies. It released a billion tonne cloud of gas like the energy of thousands of nuclear bombs exploding at the same time says nasa.

This geomagnetic storm caused a nine hour outage of hydro quebecs electricity transmission system. Seen as far south as florida and cuba the vast majority of people in the northern hemisphere had never seen such a spectacle in recent memory.