When warnings about a powerful solar storm start appearing in the news, it’s easy to imagine the worst.
Could your television suddenly stop working? Could a laptop plugged into the wall be damaged? Should you unplug everything before the storm reaches Earth?
The short answer is reassuring:
For an ordinary geomagnetic storm, most people do not need to unplug their phones, computers, TVs, or other household electronics.
Solar storms can affect technology, but their biggest risks are generally to large-scale infrastructure such as electrical grids, satellites, GPS, and radio communications — not individual devices sitting inside your home. NOAA identifies those systems as some of the main technologies vulnerable to space weather.
But extreme space weather can create indirect risks, and that’s where the answer becomes more interesting.
Why Doesn’t a Solar Storm Normally Fry Your Electronics?
A geomagnetic storm isn’t the same thing as a lightning strike hitting your house.
When a coronal mass ejection interacts with Earth’s magnetic field, changes in that magnetic environment can induce electrical currents in conductive systems on Earth.
The size of the system matters.
Long electrical transmission lines can collect significant geomagnetically induced currents because they extend across enormous distances.
Your phone charger doesn’t.
Neither does the short power cable connecting your desktop computer to an outlet.
That’s one reason space-weather agencies are much more concerned about high-voltage transmission networks than the electronics sitting on your desk. Severe geomagnetic storms can disturb power systems and have historically contributed to large blackouts.
Can a Solar Storm Cause a Power Outage?
Yes.
This is one of the genuine risks from a sufficiently powerful geomagnetic storm.
Rapid changes in Earth’s magnetic field can create currents in long transmission lines. Those currents can interfere with power-grid equipment and potentially contribute to voltage problems, transformer stress, or protective systems shutting parts of the grid down.
This isn’t merely theoretical.
In March 1989, a powerful geomagnetic storm contributed to the collapse of Hydro-Québec’s electrical grid, leaving millions of people without power for hours.
So the realistic concern isn’t usually:
“Will solar particles directly destroy my television?”
It’s closer to:
“Could an extreme storm interfere with the electrical infrastructure supplying my television?”
Those are very different risks.
Could a Power-Grid Problem Damage Electronics Indirectly?
Potentially.
Your household electronics depend on the electrical grid, and electrical disturbances can sometimes cause voltage fluctuations or outages.
But this doesn’t mean every geomagnetic storm creates dangerous voltage surges inside homes.
NOAA classifies geomagnetic storms from G1 (minor) through G5 (extreme), and their potential effects vary enormously depending on severity. A routine space-weather alert isn’t equivalent to a prediction that the electrical grid is about to fail.
If utilities or local authorities issue specific instructions because an extreme event is affecting the grid, following that guidance makes sense.
Simply seeing the words “solar storm” in a headline isn’t by itself a reason to start pulling every plug in your house.
Should You Unplug Your Computer?
Normally, no.
There is no general recommendation that people unplug household computers every time a geomagnetic storm occurs.
A desktop PC is much less vulnerable to geomagnetically induced currents than the enormous transmission infrastructure supplying electricity to it.
If you’re concerned about ordinary electrical problems, the same precautions that protect a computer from other power disturbances remain useful.
A quality surge protector or uninterruptible power supply can help protect sensitive equipment from certain power events and keep devices running briefly during an outage.
But buying specialized solar-storm protection for an ordinary home computer is generally unnecessary.
What About a Laptop?
A laptop is even easier to understand.
If it’s operating from its internal battery and isn’t connected to anything, there isn’t a long conductive path through which a geomagnetic disturbance can directly induce a large current.
Earth’s atmosphere and magnetic field also provide substantial protection against energetic particles that pose much greater risks to spacecraft and astronauts.
That doesn’t make a laptop magically immune to every possible consequence of an extreme event.
The internet could fail.
Electricity could go out.
GPS-dependent services could experience problems.
But those are mostly failures of infrastructure around the laptop rather than the solar storm directly destroying the laptop itself.
Can a Solar Storm Damage Your Phone?
Direct damage to a normal smartphone on Earth’s surface is unlikely.
Phones are small devices without the enormous conductive structures that make power grids particularly vulnerable to geomagnetic disturbances.
However, the services your phone depends on can be affected.
Space weather can interfere with:
- GPS accuracy
- Satellite operations
- Certain radio communications
- Electrical infrastructure
NOAA notes that space weather can affect satellite communications and navigation systems, while solar activity can also disturb radio transmissions.
So during a powerful storm, your phone could theoretically experience problems using a service without the phone itself being physically damaged.
Could GPS Stop Working?
Space weather can degrade GPS performance.
GPS satellites transmit signals through Earth’s ionosphere before those signals reach receivers on the ground.
Solar and geomagnetic activity can disturb the ionosphere, changing how those radio signals travel.
That can reduce positioning accuracy or make signals less reliable.
The effects can be particularly important for systems that require extremely precise positioning, such as aviation, surveying, agriculture, and some industrial operations.
Your phone’s GPS hardware hasn’t necessarily broken.
The signal environment between the satellite and your phone has changed.
What About the Internet?
The internet is complicated because it isn’t one single system.
Fiber-optic cables transmit information using light and aren’t affected by geomagnetically induced currents in the same way as enormous metallic transmission lines.
But the equipment operating the internet still needs electricity.
Data centers need power.
Routers need power.
Cell towers need power.
Network equipment needs power.
So a sufficiently serious regional electrical outage could disrupt internet access even if the physical fiber-optic cable running through the area remained perfectly intact.
Again, this is an indirect effect.
Are Satellites More Vulnerable Than Your Phone?
Much more.
Satellites operate outside much of the protection provided by Earth’s atmosphere.
Energetic particles can interact with satellite electronics, cause errors, degrade components, and interfere with spacecraft operations. Strong solar activity can also heat Earth’s upper atmosphere, increasing drag on satellites in low Earth orbit.
That’s why satellite operators pay close attention to space-weather forecasts.
During dangerous conditions, operators may take precautions such as putting spacecraft into safer operating modes.
A smartphone sitting in your living room exists in a completely different environment.
Is a Solar Storm Basically an EMP?
No.
This is one of the biggest reasons people overestimate the danger to household electronics.
A geomagnetic storm and a nuclear electromagnetic pulse can both involve electromagnetic effects, but they aren’t the same phenomenon.
Geomagnetic disturbances vary relatively slowly and are especially effective at inducing currents across very long conductive systems.
A fast EMP can interact with electrical and electronic systems differently.
So advice about protecting electronics from a nuclear EMP should not automatically be applied to a solar storm.
You don’t need to put your phone in a Faraday cage every time NOAA issues a geomagnetic storm watch.
What Would Happen During an Extremely Powerful Solar Storm?
This is where scientists take the risk seriously.
An extreme geomagnetic storm could potentially place substantial stress on electrical grids and interfere with satellite operations, communications, and navigation.
NASA has warned that severe space weather can have major consequences for technological infrastructure, and a NASA-led study published in 2026 suggested Earth’s response to increasingly powerful solar storms may not have the upper limit scientists previously assumed.
That doesn’t mean the next solar storm will destroy modern civilization.
Extreme events are very different from the much more common minor and moderate geomagnetic storms.
But it explains why governments, utilities, satellite operators, airlines, and other industries monitor space weather seriously.
What Should You Actually Do Before a Solar Storm?
For most people, the useful preparation looks surprisingly similar to preparing for an ordinary power outage.
You might:
- Keep your phone charged
- Charge a power bank
- Have flashlights available
- Avoid relying entirely on one navigation method
- Follow official NOAA and local utility information
- Keep essential devices protected from ordinary electrical surges
- Be prepared for a temporary power or communications disruption during an unusually severe event
What you generally don’t need to do is panic-buy Faraday bags or disconnect every electronic device because an aurora forecast appeared in the news.
The severity of the storm matters.
So Should You Unplug Everything During a Solar Storm?
Usually, no.
Most geomagnetic storms don’t pose a direct threat to household phones, laptops, televisions, or other small electronics.
The systems that deserve greater attention are much larger: electrical grids, satellites, GPS, and communications infrastructure.
During an exceptionally severe event, problems with that infrastructure could indirectly affect the electronics and services you use.
So instead of asking:
“Will the Sun fry my phone?”
the more useful question is:
“Could this storm disrupt the infrastructure my phone depends on?”
For ordinary solar storms, the answer is usually not enough to change your daily routine.
For an extreme storm, follow the specific guidance issued by space-weather agencies, utilities, and local authorities.