h/t Roy W. Spencer

March is a peak month for auroras, and this should be a good one in the coming days.

A strong X-class solar flare lasting 5 hours has erupted on the sun, lifting a coronal mass ejection (CME) with an Earth-directed component. Play the right-hand video in the link, 1st comment, to see the CME near the end of the clip.

… the flare was unusual in that it involved two widely-separated sunspots than became magnetically connected during the flare.

https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/lasco-coronagraph

NOAA SWPC writes:

R3 (Strong) levels were reached on 22 March, 2024. The flare activity began from Region 3614 (to the north), and was still in progress when another flare erupted from Region 3615 (to the south). It’s tough to say with certainty at this point which flare was the source of R3 level

From CLIMATE DEPOT

By Marc Morano

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/mar/20/nuclear-plant-closure-carbon-emissions-new-york

When New York’s deteriorating and unloved Indian Point nuclear plant finally shuttered in 2021, its demise was met with delight from environmentalists who had long demanded it be scrapped.

But there has been a sting in the tail – since the closure, New York’s greenhouse gas emissions have gone up.

Castigated for its impact upon the surrounding environment and feared for its potential to unleash disaster close to the heart of New York City, Indian Point nevertheless supplied a large chunk of the state’s carbon-free electricity.

Since the plant’s closure, it has been gas, rather then clean energy such as solar and wind, that has filled the void, leaving New York City in the embarrassing situation of seeing its planet-heating emissions jump in recent years to the point its power grid is now dirtier than Texas’s, as well as the US average.

“From a climate change point of view it’s been a real step backwards and made it harder for New York City to decarbonize its electricity supply than it could’ve been,” said Ben Furnas, a climate and energy policy expert at Cornell University. “This has been a cautionary tale that has left New York in a really challenging spot.”

The closure of Indian Point raises sticky questions for the green movement and states such as New York that are looking to slash carbon pollution. Should long-held concerns about nuclear be shelved due to the overriding challenge of the climate crisis? If so, what should be done about the US’s fleet of ageing nuclear plants?

For those who spent decades fighting Indian Point, the power plant had few redeeming qualities even in an era of escalating global heating. Perched on the banks of the Hudson River about 25 miles north of Manhattan, the hulking facility started operation in the 1960s and its three reactors at one point contributed about a quarter of New York City’s power.

From NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT

By Paul Homewood

London, 22 March – A new report published by the Global Warming Policy Foundation challenges the popular but mistaken belief that weather extremes – such as flooding, droughts, hurricanes, tornadoes and wildfires – are more common and more intense today because of climate change.

Drawing on newspaper archives and long-term observational data, the report, written by Dr Ralph Alexander, documents multiple examples of past extremes that matched or exceeded anything experienced in the present-day world.
Dr Ralph Alexander said:
“That so many people are unaware of past extremes shows that collective memories of extreme weather are short-lived.”
“The perception that extreme weather events are increasing in frequency and severity is primarily a consequence of new information technology – the Internet and smart phones – which have revolutionised communication and made us much more aware of such disasters in all corners of the world than we were 50 or 100 years ago.”

Ralph Alexander: Weather extremes in historical context (pdf)