One year after the peak of the next solar cycle, bracketed by events due to a magnetically hyperactive Sun,
the Great Chicago Fire.
On that hot, dry, and windy autumn day, three other major fires occurred along the shores of Lake Michigan at the same time as the Great Chicago Fire. Some 250 miles (400 km) to the north, the Peshtigo Fire consumed the town of Peshtigo, Wisconsin, along with a dozen other villages. It killed 1,200 to 2,500 people and charred approximately 1.5 million acres (6,000 km²). The Peshtigo Fire remains the deadliest in American history [45] but the remoteness of the region meant it was little noticed at the time, due to the fact that one of the first things that burned were the telegraph lines to Green Bay. [46]
Across the lake to the east, the town of Holland, Michigan, and other nearby areas burned to the ground. [47] Some 100 miles (160 km) to the north of Holland, the lumbering community of Manistee also went up in flames [48] in what became known as The Great Michigan Fire. [47]
Farther east, along the shore of Lake Huron, the Port Huron Fire swept through Port Huron, Michigan and much of Michigan's "Thumb". On October 9, 1871, a fire swept through the city of Urbana, Illinois, 140 miles (230 km) south of Chicago, destroying portions of its downtown area. [49] Windsor, Ontario, likewise burned on October 12. [50]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Chicago_Fire
Published: 06 July 1871
https://www.nature.com/articles/004183c0
"LAST evening, about eight o'clock, being in the grounds belonging to the Radcliffe Observatory, I was exceedingly surprised at seeing what I have no doubt of being true auroral streamers, forming a little to the east of the south meridian, reaching an altitude of about 25°, and after travelling some distance in a westerly direction, vanishing. This lasted at least ten minutes, when the sky, which had been overcast nearly all day again became so. I pointed the streamers out to several people who were near me, some of whom watched them with me, as a proof of what I had before doubted, namely, that auroras are visible by daylight."
October 14, 1870 – Aurora last night: Its remarkable brilliancy http://www.solarstorms.org/NewsPapers/1870f.pdf
October 24, 1870 – Cleveland and Cincinnati see a ‘splendid’ aurora. Widely observed throughout the country, the aurora lasted two days. Various scientific causes are mentioned, with quotes by Prof. Olmstead. http://www.solarstorms.org/NewsPapers/1870h.pdf
Magnetic disturbances were recorded at the Melbourne Observatory in Australia, and found to occur at the same time as magnetic disturbances in northern observatories. [Harpers Weekly, 1871, issue 09/16]. An auroral display http://www.solarstorms.org/NewsPapers/1870h.pdf
February 4-5, 1872 – An aurora was seen from Paris with rays that stretched to the zenith. It was not reported to be as spectacular as the ‘blood red’ aurora seen in October 1870. http://www.solarstorms.org/NewsPapers/1872v.pdf
It was also observed from Havana, Cuba and was widely interpreted to be an omen of the end of the world. http://www.solarstorms.org/NewsPapers/1872t.pdf
August 18, 1872 – It was called ‘the most remarkable auroral display that has occurred within the memory of the present generation." http://www.solarstorms.org/NewsPapers/1872r.pdf
http://www.solarstorms.org/SRefStorms.html
Other examples where reported overhead aurora were associated with sharp deviations in the magnetometer record during great storms can be found under ‘‘Extraordinary Observations of Magnetometers’’ in the early Greenwich year books. Digitized records of such occurrences exist for storms on 25 October 1870, 9 April 1871, and 4 February 1872 (see Jones 1955 for accounts of the associated auroral observations). https://www.swsc-journal.org/articles/s ... 130015.pdf
There are tales from as late as the Franco-Prussian war in 1870–1871 where magnificent red auroras were deemed reflections of battlefields drenched in blood. This is not the only time blood red auroras and times of battle have coincided. There are similar stories dating back to the American Civil War, the French Revolution and the Greater Wrath in Finland (1714–1721). Coincidence? https://www.lapland.fi/visit/lapland-no ... s-auroras/
It's quite possible that a dense chunk of CME ejecta from a magnetically unstable, jittery Sun was the cause of the Great Chicago Fire and the numerous simultaneous fires across the region.
Being redder in colour, lower-latitude aurorae were sometimes mistaken for fire, or seen as representing blood in the sky. Rayed structure was often reminiscent of military spears; arcs and curves were fiery dragons. Aurorae are said to have foretold the death of Julius Caesar (44 BCE) and presaged the American Civil War (1860), so for millennia the appearance of a red aurora was interpreted as a bad omen.
https://www.theguardian.com/science/blo ... foreboding
In the first video, Randall Carlson talks about how some people in Chicago seemed to be "ready" for disaster. They were most likely basing their thoughts on having seen auroral activity.
It may very well be that energetic electromagnetic solar events are seen more at the end of a grand minimum so wouldn't be expected until the end of the Eddy Minimum. In any case, stay aware of aurorae. The Earth's magnetosphere is weakening rapidly so it may not take much of a CME at all to get through.
"...a sickly mist, tinged with purple, emerged..."
Imagine you're running a country when the Sun, completely out of the blue, causes the Carrington Event. A mere 12 years later it then does this. What are you going to do to prevent your population from totally freaking out? How do you get the Sun out of the picture? Well...Mrs. O'Leary's cow, of course.
