Was This Week’s Massive Cell Outage In Illinois Caused By Solar Flares?

Experts are weighing in on the possibility that solar flares in the Earth's atmosphere could have caused the massive cell outage experienced nationwide on Thursday.

Cell Outage Pandemonium

On Thursday morning thousands of AT&T, Verizon, Cricket, and T-Mobile customers woke up to a very unpleasant discovery; they had no cell service.

While AT&T customers seemed to experience the brunt of the outages, issues with other carries like Verizon and T Mobile were reported as well. Service was restored to customers far quicker that we thought it would be, but what caused it?

Some people are saying massive solar flares in the Earth's atmosphere could be to blame.

What is a Solar Flare?

Science is definitely not my strong suit, so for those that are wondering what a solar flare is it's "an intense burst of radiation coming from the release of magnetic energy associated with sunspots" according to NASA.

NASA also says solar flares are "our solar system's largest explosive events", so I can totally see how it would be possible for it to knock out cellular service to people all over the World.

Did Solar Flares Cause Thursday's Cell Outages?

An article from NBC 5 Chicago says;

According to NOAA, the sun emitted two strong solar flares Wednesday and Thursday, both with an R3 intensity on NOAA's five-level scale. The first one peaked at 5:07 p.m. CST on Wednesday, NOAA said. The second peaked at 1:32 a.m. CST early Thursday morning.

Reports of AT&T's service disruption began showing in Downdetector.com around 3:30 a.m. Thursday.

So, did solar flares cause the nationwide cell outage? I think the answer could very well be yes.