Expert: Harry Hayfield - 6/26/2004

Question
do you think that the great black last summer may have been caused by a magnetic storm like the one
in1989in canada? and is the sun stillin solar max?

Answer
Oh, if only it was Kwok. I am sorry to state that the reason for the power loss in the Northeeastern United States in the summer of 2003 was down to nothing more than human error. It turned out that a "casade reaction" occured that knocked out the grid connections between Ohio and the American Northeast (Believe me, as a shareholder in the company affected I was praying for it to be put down to a geomagnetical storm, but no such luck!) as the sun's next solar maximum isn't due until 2011