I have the cover story in Focus this month:

 
“With no warning, the lights go out. A sudden loss of electrical power has struck the whole country. Air traffic control goes offline, hospitals switch to back-up generators and as you wait it out at home a stunning aurora dances in the sky above your head.

The blackout stretches on. Hours become days and the power does not return. There is no Internet, TV or newspapers to tell you what is happening. Soon, the diesel driving the hospitals’ emergency generators runs out and food stops arriving in supermarkets because fuel for the delivery trucks can’t be pumped without electricity.

Why is nothing working? An extraordinarily powerful solar storm has battered the Earth causing phantom currents in the power lines and damaging the transformers beyond repair. But that’s not all it has destroyed. ...”

You can read the full story in the August issue of BBC Focus magazine or by clicking here.