Solar Flares the Reason Many Missouri Weather Radios Not Working?

Let's start with the known facts. Many weather radios in Missouri are currently experiencing an outage and the reason why is a bit of a mystery. Some are claiming that recent solar flares could be the reason. Let's dig deeper and see if that's even a possibility.

Once again, let's emphasize the known facts. It is confirmed by the National Weather Service in St. Louis, Missouri that weather radios in the northeastern part of the state and also the St. Louis area are experiencing an outage as a graphic they created shows.

The reason given is a "telephone line issue" and that is causing some to speculate that those telephone lines were damaged by recent strong solar storms that caused the Northern Lights to be visible over many parts of Missouri this week. Is that possible? The short answer is yes, but...

A story by Forbes addressed some aspects of this issue confirming that solar flares CAN affect communication systems like satellites, GPS and phone lines and infrastructure. I can confirm that when the huge solar storm event happened in May, I could hear power lines crackling outside as the Northern Lights were visible overhead.

Does this mean we should suspect solar flares this week are making weather radios in Missouri not work? I really doubt it. Yes, it's hypothetically possible, but if a solar storm was strong enough to knock out weather radios, wouldn't we be seeing many other cellular towers and perhaps even power grid issues? I'm asking because I don't know either.

I do believe that a future solar flare could potentially damage our power grid and radio systems. I just don't think the one that happened this week is the root cause. Let's just hope the "telephone line issues" get worked out soon so Missourians have their weather radios functioning again.