We still have an active sun

Earlier this month, a rather strong solar flare that originated from the sun Wednesday afternoon, Sept. 10, headed toward Earth providing a dazzling light show across parts of the northern U.S. Friday night, Sept. 12. There were reports of some green and orange lights in our region from the effects of that solar flare. It was one of the largest events since 2006, but, fortunately, there were no major disruptions to satellite communications.

That was the second solar flare to hit the Earth within a week. The last one did cause impacts to high-frequency radio communications last Wednesday, Sept. 10.

The intense flare is also known as a coronal mass ejection, or CME. These massive ejections from the sun contain billions of tons of energenic hydrogen and helium ions and other high levels of radiation that can affect communications. Our Earth's electromagnetic field, which is believed to be generated from the rotation of our planet's core, protects our planet from the sun's harmful radiation.

One of the big effects of this event is the expansion of the Northern Lights. Many residents in the northern U.S. and points northward were treated to a show of shimmering and dazzling colors last Friday night. The phenomenon occurs as the result of the collisions between the gaseous particles in our atmosphere with the charged particles from the sun's particles.

The sun has been sending CME's at our planet for billions of years. In 2000, called the Bastille Day Event, a major flare caused some satellites to short-circuit and led to some radio blackouts. In 1989, another powerful flare literally knocked out power in Quebec that left 6 million people without power for nine hours. Some power transformers in New Jersey melted from the intense solar storm.

The most massive and first documented event of a solar flare to impact Earth occurred in 1859, known as the Carrington Event. According to NOAA, the storm was so massive that the aurora displays, the Northern Lights, were seen all the way down to the Caribbean, an extremely rare event. At that time, the telegraph was the main form of global communications and the huge flare shocked some telegraph operators and even sparked fires from discharges from the lines. It's estimated that if this type of event were to strike today, and someday it will, damage to satellites and other forms of communications would be in the 'trillions' of dollars.

Our sun is currently heading out of it's "maxima" phase, but additional CME's are still possible through the rest of the year.

NORTH IDAHO WEATHER REVIEW AND LONG-RANGE OUTLOOKS

Autumn officially begins later today, and we're expecting a warm 'Indian Summer' type of weather with more afternoon high temperatures in the 80s until a Pacific storm system arrives between Wednesday and Friday with the promise of needed rain and cooler readings in the mid 60s.

This will help lower our fire danger levels in the region. We had a wildfire this past week between Liberty Lake and the Spokane Valley as well as a couple of small grass fires elsewhere in the Inland Empire.

After a wet start to September that featured the first frosts of the season on Sept. 11 and 12, as is typical after an early cold spell, we saw a warm and dry two-week period with afternoon highs mostly in the 80s and morning lows well above freezing in the 40s and 50s. Only a 'trace' of moisture had been measured at my station on Player Drive between Sept. 4 and Sept. 19, hence the higher fire danger levels.

Longer-term, we should see a fall season very similar to the spring of 2014 with periods of alternating sun and showers increasing by late October and early November.

It remains my climatological opinion that the type of winter weather that we'll see in 2014-15 locally in the Inland Empire will depend at least partially upon what happens in the next several months to the current rather 'weak' El Nino in the waters of the eastern Pacific Ocean. If El Nino strengthens, we will likely see less snowfall than usual and milder temperatures overall. But, if it falls apart, all bets are off.

Cliff Harris is a climatologist who writes a weekly column for The Press. His opinions are his own. Email sfharris@roadrunner.com