In 1989 a space weather storm caused an electrical blackout in
Canada. The black area on this map shows where people lost their
electrical power for many hours. Click on image for full size
Image courtesy of M. A. Shea, Geophysics Directorate, Phillips
Laboratory. Power Blackout Caused by Space Weather Storm In 1989
a space weather storm caused an electrical blackout over a large
area. Six million people in eastern Canada lost electrical power
for 9 hours or longer. In March 1989 a large space weather storm
struck Earth. The storm generated strong electrical currents in
our atmosphere. Some of that electricity caused currents to flow
in wires in our electrical power system. That extra surge of
electricity damaged some kinds of equipment. A major transformer
was destroyed. That caused the whole electrical system to "go
down". Lots of people lost power for many hours. The blackout in
Canada cost a lot of money and was dangerous. Scientists are
trying to learn how to predict big space weather storms better.
That