Preparing for winter II

[Deleted User]

a few of you have been following the netweather forums so maybe this stuff is of interest to you. I noticed that there was a fair amount of `chat` wrt the stratosphere changing temperature and how this affects the weather and someone else was talking about solar spots and flares. Well I am dragging to life what is left of the physicist in me and an getting very excited reading more and more about NASA and solar storms and flares etc. In 1989 there was a biggish solar flare that knocked out all the power in quebec and there have been bigger since but directed away from the earth fortunately

On august 1st a whole hemisphere of the sun had a massive eruption and they are working on the data now. On nov 8th there was an international space weather initiative in Egypt and all the boffins are desparately trying to get facts together around the world. Solar storms can knock out power, disable satellites and scramble GPS. Therre is a fountain of ionisation with its spout turned towards the sun and it circles the globe once a day. This can change shape during solar storms and completely disrupt communications and also affect our weather. Every hundred years or so a solar storm occurs that sends electric currents through the soil and if that occured today then we could get widespread power blackouts. All in all the talk is of at least 12 months of repair and disruption to everything including the utilities

ok, that is enough for now and let`s just say that I have beeen shaken by what I have learnt. Until this week I have been getting shocks several times in the day and now I am sure it isn`t just coincidence and neither is the weather `just one of those things`.

anyone else interested then go onto the nasa science news site

mardatha

Kittie, the survivalists know all about this stuff, they are prepping for it. There is a weapon as well that will do the same job as a huge solar storm. I think you have to build a Faraday Cage for your stuff you want to protect. But dont quote me, best look it up !

Confuzzled

Wee_Bargain_Hunter wrote: »

I'll have to put my 2p worth in here as I think it's better to leave taps off if you are out - just run them occasionally if you are at home.

the advice i had was off a few professional plumbing websites but they did state that you needn't keep the taps running, just open them so they drip a little, then normally they stop dribbling (i'm sure you all know what i mean) and just leave them like that so that the pressure that builds up in the pipes has somewhere to go when they freeze and thus the water expands inside

mind you this is just for if you're going away for several days, not out to the shops or something. if you pipes burst even during that short time frame i don't think the heating is on high enough in the house! :eek:

bluebag

mardatha wrote: »

Kittie, the survivalists know all about this stuff, they are prepping for it. There is a weapon as well that will do the same job as a huge solar storm. I think you have to build a Faraday Cage for your stuff you want to protect. But dont quote me, best look it up !

As a fountain of utterly useless knowledge I can tell you an ordinary car is a perfect faraday cage.

Please don't ask me how I know this, it may make me take a strong look at my life.

mardatha

....ASKING ! Go onnnn....tell us how you know this !

[Deleted User]

lol I might start to collect silver foil. Now where in the bin is that big piece I used for the turkey?

No point worrying. Remember the nuclear shelters we were advised to build under the stairs!

It has stopped me thinking about running my storecupboard down though. I`ll keep using it during the bad weeks and then I`ll replace stuff

nuclear (also solar) winter comes to mind

bluebag

mardatha wrote: »

....ASKING ! Go onnnn....tell us how you know this !

No, not tellin';)

bluebag

I looked in my water butt today, it is frozen completetly solid from top to bottom, unbelieveable. I must remember to drain some water off before the next icy spell, as I'm sure the downpipe draining onto it must also be frozen.

It looks amazing tho'

Charis

kittie wrote: »

ok, that is enough for now and let`s just say that I have beeen shaken by what I have learnt. Until this week I have been getting shocks several times in the day and now I am sure it isn`t just coincidence and neither is the weather `just one of those things`.

anyone else interested then go onto the nasa science news site

That's made me think. A few nights ago I plugged the laptop charger cable into an extension lead in the living room - one given to my by the local fire service to discourage the use of multiple sockets 'because they sometimes hang out of the wall, arc and cause fires'. Well anyway there was a small flash and a pop and...nothing. It's all still working perfectly. I mentioned it to my son and he says the same thing has happened to him several times using the wall sockets in his room without an extension lead. I've never known in on a household circuit before and we've had five different properties over the years. The rest of the time they are fine. I hope :eek:

[Deleted User]

oh wow, that was happening to me and it has stopped in the last two days. I couldn`t touch any socket because of the shocks so I bought one of those remote controllers to switch things off