The Darkness Of The Sun

A fast-moving geomagnetic storm blasts the North American power grid, leaving a large swath of the Northeastern U.S. temporarily uninhabitable.

‘Daddy, wake up! Come see the rainbows!’ 6-year-old Amanda LeBlanc insisted as she shook her father out of his slumber. Joel LeBlanc stirred slowly, feeling like he hadn’t slept at all.

‘No, Daddy you have to look,’ insisted Amanda, throwing the bedroom curtains wide open. Joel squinted at the light, confused. It was way too early for sunrise, wasn’t it?

Joel hoisted himself out of bed and joined his daughter at the window, catching his breath at the sight. ‘Huh. You know what that is, honey? It’s called an aurora. Don’t see that every day -- not in Florida anyway.’

‘I’m going outside to take a picture,’ Amanda declared, cantering off.

Northward, there was less wonderment and more worry. Scientists had warned that week of a large coronal mass ejection (CME) that the sun had hurled toward Earth. Only three days later, it was followed by a pair of still-larger CMEs. The latter two bursts combined during their brief journey from the sun, pushing billions of tons of highly charged particles toward Earth at unprecedented speed, thanks to the path cleared by the earlier blast.