![](https://www.ctvnews.ca/polopoly_fs/1.4994034.1592798454!/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_800/image.jpg)
Your father’s diet before you were born could have affected your health, a new study suggests
Your father's diet before you were born could have played a role in your health, a new study has found.
A powerful solar storm put on an amazing skyward light show around the globe overnight but has caused what appeared to be only minor disruptions to the electric power grid, communications and satellite positioning systems.
The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said extreme geomagnetic storm conditions continued Saturday, and there were preliminary reports of power grid irregularities, degradation of high-frequency communications and global positioning systems.
But the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency said that, so far, no FEMA region had reported any significant impact from the storms. The U.S. Department of Energy said Saturday it is not aware of any impact from the storms on electric customers.
The Northern Lights, or Aurora Borealis, illuminate the night sky over the Lake Balaton, near Fonyod, Hungary, late Friday, May 10, 2024. (Gyorgy Varga//MTI via AP)
NOAA predicted that strong flares will continue through at least Sunday, and a spokeswoman said via email that the agency's Space Weather Prediction Center had prepared well for the storm.
On Saturday morning, SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet service said on its website that service had been degraded and its team was investigating. CEO Elon Musk wrote on the social platform X overnight that its satellites were “under a lot of pressure, but holding up so far.”
Brilliant purple, green, yellow and pink hues of the Northern Lights were reported worldwide, with sightings in Germany, Switzerland, China, England, Spain and elsewhere.
In the U.S., Friday’s solar storm pushed the lights much farther south than normal. The Miami office of the National Weather Service confirmed sightings in the areas of Fort Lauderdale and Fort Myers, Florida. Meteorologist Nick Carr said another forecaster who lives near Fort Lauderdale photographed the lights and was familiar with them because he previously lived in Alaska.
In this image taken with a long exposure, people look at the night sky towards the northern lights, or Aurora Borealis, on Friday, May 10, 2024, in Estacada, Ore. T (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)
People in Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota and other Midwestern states were able to capture photos of bright colors along the horizon.
With the solar storm persisting through the weekend, Saturday night offered another chance for many to see the spectacle.
NOAA issued a rare severe geomagnetic storm warning when a solar outburst reached Earth on Friday afternoon, hours sooner than anticipated.
The agency alerted operators of power plants and orbiting spacecraft, as well as FEMA, to take precautions.
“For most people here on planet Earth, they won’t have to do anything,” said Rob Steenburgh, a scientist with NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center.
“That’s really the gift from space weather: the aurora,” Steenburgh said. He and his colleagues said the best views may come from phone cameras, which are better at capturing light than the naked eye.
Snap a picture of the sky, and “there might be actually a nice little treat there for you,” said Mike Bettwy, operations chief for the prediction center.
In this image taken with a long exposure, cars pass by as people look at the night sky towards the northern lights, or Aurora Borealis, on Friday, May 10, 2024, in Estacada, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)
The most intense solar storm in recorded history, in 1859, prompted auroras in central America and possibly even Hawaii.
This storm poses a risk for high-voltage transmission lines for power grids, not the electrical lines ordinarily found in people’s homes, NOAA space weather forecaster Shawn Dahl told reporters. Satellites also could be affected, which in turn could disrupt navigation and communication services here on Earth.
An extreme geomagnetic storm in 2003, for example, took out power in Sweden and damaged power transformers in South Africa.
Even when the storm is over, signals between GPS satellites and ground receivers could be scrambled or lost, according to NOAA. But there are so many navigation satellites that any outages should not last long, Steenburgh noted.
The sun has produced strong solar flares since Wednesday, resulting in at least seven outbursts of plasma. Each eruption, known as a coronal mass ejection, can contain billions of tons of plasma and magnetic field from the sun’s outer atmosphere, or corona.
The Northern lights fill the sky at the Bogus Basin ski resort on Saturday, May 11, 2024 in Boise, Idaho. (Kyle Green (AP Photo/Kyle Green)
The flares seem to be associated with a sunspot that is 16 times the diameter of Earth, NOAA said. It is all part of the solar activity ramping up as the sun approaches the peak of its 11-year cycle.
Dunn reported from Cape Canaveral, Fla., Krisher from Detroit and Funk from Omaha, Neb.
Your father's diet before you were born could have played a role in your health, a new study has found.
210,000 pounds of food was delivered to the Ottawa Food Bank on Saturday, the largest donation in its 40-year history.
Federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says he is 'even more alarmed than before' after reading the un-redacted report alleging there are MPs and senators who are participating to some degree in foreign interference efforts.
Joe Alwyn is speaking publicly for the first time about the end of his years-long relationship with Taylor Swift.
Some of Hollywood's brightest stars headlined a fundraiser for U.S. President Joe Biden that took in a record US$30 million-plus for a Democratic candidate, according to his campaign, in hopes of energizing would-be supporters for a White House contest they said may rank among the most consequential in U.S. history.
Prince William on Sunday shared a photograph showing him as a child with his father, King Charles III, to mark Father’s Day in the United Kingdom this year.
As Canadians continue to struggle with the extremely high cost of buying a home in some of the country’s major urban centres, a new global report is underscoring just how expensive some of those markets are.
On a day that a local state of emergency was declared in Calgary, city residents answered a request from the mayor and emergency officials to use less water.
Canadians would get more than $1 billion in unclaimed benefits each year through an automatic tax filing system, according to a report published by the Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO).
The thunderstorm that hit Ottawa Thursday evening was accompanied by heavy rain and lightning that struck a house in Orléans.
Canadian and U.S. ironworkers shook hands across the border as the Gordie Howe bridge deck officially becomes an international crossing.
Age may be just a number to George Steciuk, but it’s just one of many that add up to one inspirational athlete.
It has taken more than 100 years, but Almonte’s forgotten soldier, George B. Monterville has had his name etched back into history.
For Father's Day, CP24.com and CTVNewsToronto.ca reached out to local politicians, community advocates, and other prominent figures in the city to ask them to share what important lesson they have learned from their dads.
Fancy Pokket owner Mike Timani has decided to create a 220-foot long flat bread to celebrate its 35th anniversary.
If certain goals that are in the Paris Climate Accord aren't met, the existence of polar bears in the Hudson Bay may come to an end.
In an attempt to invite one of the most popular recording artists in the world to the land of living skies – the City of Swift Current has offered to rename itself in honour of Taylor Swift.
More than a dozen dogs arrived by Cargojet early Thursday morning to the People for Animal Wellbeing Shelter to find a permanent place to call home in New Brunswick.