Expert skywatching knowhow sought: Should I get my hair done, or start digging feverishly?

It is beyond my sphere of expertise, but one thing I can't help noticing about today and Friday: It could prove to be a most interesting time. For one thing

Friday the 13th could be a lucky day for sky watchers. Several minor CMEs propelled toward Earth earlier this week by active sunspot AR2297 are expected to arrive en masse on March 12th and 13th. Their collective impact could spark bright auroras around the Arctic Circle. NOAA forecasters estimate a 60% chance of G1-class geomagnetic storms when the CMEs arrive.

Ok, sounds like camera time, until I read this

All week long, sunspot AR2297 has been crackling with solar flares. Yesterday it produced a really big one. On March 11th at 16:22 UT (09:22 PDT), Earth orbiting-satellites detected an X2-class flare. The blast zone was larger than Earth itself:

(GULP) What awaits us? Possible grid failures? Forget about using the blow dryer?

Extreme ultraviolet radiation from the explosion ionized the upper layers of Earth's atmosphere, causing HF radio blackouts and other propagation effects on the dayside of our planet, particularly over the Americas.

Noooes! Our hair might fall out? I

(cont'd)

Later today, March 12th, NASA will launch a fleet of spacecraft to investigate the mystery of magnetic reconnection: On the sun, magnetic field lines cross, cancel, reconnect and—bang! A solar flare explodes. How does the simple act of crisscrossing magnetic fields trigger such a ferocious blast? The Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission aims to find out.

Oh my, I just had a vision of bald earthlings all over North America. (that's both males and females)

Now to add to the fun, there will be not one but three, count them 1,2,3 close encounters with hazardous asteroids today. Combine their passage with the magnetosphere and what is to be expected, if anything?

You can read all about this here

a reply to: aboutface

I would love for an EMP to blast us into the dark ages.

America needs a reset.

originally posted by: aboutface
(cont'd)

Later today, March 12th, NASA will launch a fleet of spacecraft to investigate the mystery of magnetic reconnection: On the sun, magnetic field lines cross, cancel, reconnect and—bang! A solar flare explodes. How does the simple act of crisscrossing magnetic fields trigger such a ferocious blast? The Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission aims to find out.

Oh my, I just had a vision of bald earthlings all over North America.

Good, I wont stand out as much now

I will venture out tonight and see if the light show makes it down to western new York.

Thanks for the heads up OP

It's only a matter of time before something natural hits the earth again.
Wonder where the best place would be for a Flare to hit the Earth. I know the day side gets it but who has the least to worry about it.
Like China, UK or us in the USA. I'm hearing we could be set back to the dark ages. Is China or the UK better prepared perhaps?

Imagine it would be bad for everyone though. The only thing I'd like to see is how the rest of the world handles it.
Is there a plan to help those effected like we do when there are Earthquakes or flooding. Might be the push we need to pull us together as a planet and work together. That sounds like a fantasy I know. Seems allot of countries rely on us growing food for them so no matter who gets hit would really effect everyone I think but could be wrong.

Then again if we can't start the car and watch tv it could be a Earth saver in the long run not burning fossil fuels.

a reply to: Connman

My main concern for us in America is our nuke plants. In a true and prolonged grid failure, how long can we keep these plants running on alternative power?

a reply to: KawRider9

How much of the grid is protected? I know that Canada did some work on this as we got hit once, but what about the USA and Central America?

originally posted by: KawRider9
a reply to: aboutface

I would love for an EMP to blast us into the dark ages.

America needs a reset.

I hope none of your family or friends needs medical assistance...

a reply to: aboutface

Sorry, I'm ignorant on that subject.

Knowing how our government works, I'm sure it's sub-par!

a reply to: Connman

The UK grid system has everything switched on to spread the load over the whole system, the whole thing be interconnected.

a reply to: pikestaff

The vast majority of my family is in the medical field. So I'm sure we'll be just fine.

Been lots of doctors before electricity was invented....

These flares while large are nothing to be concerned about. They'd have to be a lot more energetic than this to cause any sort of concern around power outages.

The most one of these might be able to do would be knock a communication satellite offline but our ionosphere and magnetosphere protects us and is why these things produce pretty auroras but not much else.

originally posted by: Connman
It's only a matter of time before something natural hits the earth again.
Wonder where the best place would be for a Flare to hit the Earth. I know the day side gets it but who has the least to worry about it.
Like China, UK or us in the USA. I'm hearing we could be set back to the dark ages. Is China or the UK better prepared perhaps?

Imagine it would be bad for everyone though. The only thing I'd like to see is how the rest of the world handles it.
Is there a plan to help those effected like we do when there are Earthquakes or flooding. Might be the push we need to pull us together as a planet and work together. That sounds like a fantasy I know. Seems allot of countries rely on us growing food for them so no matter who gets hit would really effect everyone I think but could be wrong.

Then again if we can't start the car and watch tv it could be a Earth saver in the long run not burning fossil fuels.

There would be no issue with starting cars. Power outages in the US due to the poor electrical infrastructure (compared to Europe and Japan) would produce some localized blackouts but nothing on a national level. In 1965 there was such a blackout on the East Coast but it was not to my knowledge produced by a CME.