0310L-FRIDAY OUTLOOK FROM GARFIELD COUNTY EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT 02/23/24
*First things first. The cell phone outage was NOT caused by sun flare activity per Space Weather officials. You can go here to read their information. https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/ I do get alerts when flares occur but so far none have been strong enough to cause cell phone outages. A major explosion on the sun COULD cause what we call an electromagnetic pulse. It would have to be very large and we wouldn’t have much time to prepare even with warnings. This situation could also take out our power grid too. Lets hope this never happens. It has happened before back in the 1800’s but didn’t have that large of affect on folks.
The above said, we do have that backup plan here, just in case, so even though some phones were affected, we could still utilize our radio network since it’s not tied to the internet. Some responders do utilize an app that re-broadcasts through cellular networks but yesterday was a prime example of what can happen if you rely totally on a cell phone for notifications. Even First-Net was affected in some areas around the country. ALL NETWORKS are vulnerable when you tie anything to the internet or cellular networks. We may not know the truth about what happened but everyone should remember that cell phone networks are vulnerable. Prepare accordingly as this won’t be the last time this occurs. Just remember, DON’T PANIC, JUST BE PREPARED. Some of our NW Emergency Managers are working on our plans and systems to stay in touch with each other when a major occurrence happens. This will encourage several to step up and get our situations completed.
*WEATHER-WISE; windy, warm, and no rain in the immediate future. The fire danger is increasing so use caution while working with anything related to fire. Overall, we’ll be ok so here is your forecast from the NWS/NORMAN;
Today- Sunny. Highs in the mid-60s. Northwest winds 10 to 15 mph with gusts up to 25 mph.
Tonight- Clear. Lows in the mid-30s. Northwest winds 5 to 10 mph.
HAVE A GOOD DAY!
