Solar Storm Warning

Here is an interesting story I just ran across at nasa.science.gov:

Solar Storm Warning

March 10, 2006: It's official: Solar minimum has arrived. Sunspots have all but vanished. Solar flares are nonexistent. The sun is utterly quiet.

Like the quiet before a storm.

This week researchers announced that a storm is coming--the most intense solar maximum in fifty years. The prediction comes from a team led by Mausumi Dikpati of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). "The next sunspot cycle will be 30% to 50% stronger than the previous one," she says. If correct, the years ahead could produce a burst of solar activity second only to the historic Solar Max of 1958.

That was a solar maximum. The Space Age was just beginning: Sputnik was launched in Oct. 1957 and Explorer 1 (the first US satellite) in Jan. 1958. In 1958 you couldn't tell that a solar storm was underway by looking at the bars on your cell phone; cell phones didn't exist. Even so, people knew something big was happening when Northern Lights were sighted three times in Mexico. A similar maximum now would be noticed by its effect on cell phones, GPS, weather satellites and many other modern technologies.
....

OK, so a bad solar storm can knock out cell phones, GPS, and weather satellites. Doesn't sound too bad, does it, until you realize that it also can bring down regional and/or national power grids, interfere with radio and television, and make the sky look very strange.

While reading this article, I realized that I actually remember the 1958 solar storm. I was 11 years old. We lived on Long Island in New York. Looking out my bedroom window, the Northern sky glowed red, like all of New York City was on fire. I asked my Mom and Dad, and they told me that it was the Northern Lights.

Now imagine that you are sitting at home. Your power is out. You can't reach anyone on the phone because the cell phones are not working and the regular land line phone circuits are overloaded. You can't get any radio or TV, not even cable (they get their signals from satellites, you know). The sky looks like the whole country is burning. You can't reach anyone to ask. What would you think was happening?

Now imagine that this was happening world-wide.

Jesus said in Luke 21:25-26 "And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves, people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world. For the powers of the heavens will be shaken."

Of course we know that Jesus said in Mark 13:32-33 "But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on guard, keep awake. For you do not know when the time will come."

No, we don't know when, but we are commanded to watch for Him. In my own humble opinion, 2012 is about the time that I expect Him to come for us. Just an opinion, not a prediction.

Maranatha!