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WGC REPORTS
WASHINGTON GRAIN COMMISSION
Long-range weather forecaster Art Douglas (left) talks with Washington Grain Commissioner Hal Johnson at the Tri-State Wheat Convention.
He said it is possible a massive solar flare
could heat the atmosphere above Greenland,
where solar energy initially strikes the earth,
and create an upper stratospheric warming
event. As opposed to expectations, that high
altitude warming could result in a sudden
chill in the Eastern U.S., a freezing event
which has the potential to extend as far west
as the Pacific Northwest. Unfortunately, solar
flares can’t be forecast more than six or eight
hours in advance.
A coronal mass ejection hit Earth on Oct. 24, 2011 at
approximately 2:00 p.m. EDT. The impact strongly
compressed Earth’s magnetic field, directly exposing geosynchronous
satellites to solar wind plasma and sparked
an intense geomagnetic storm. As night fell over North
America, auroras spilled across the Canadian border
into the contiguous United States. A U.S. Department of
Defense satellite photographed the crossing.
48 WHEAT LIFE JANUARY 2012