Will the world end Sunday?

Is it possible the prognosticators are right this time?

If they are, then this is probably the last issue of Your TIMES. If they’re not, then expect your next edition on Wednesday as usual.

The latest prediction of the apocalypse is forecast for Sunday, April 23, 2023. And since this prophecy came by way of the internet, in general, and Tik-Tok, in particular, it obviously must be true (wink, wink).

Why will the end of the world happen? An intense solar storm is forecast for Sunday. A similar solar event was expected Thursday, and we’re either still here or you didn’t get a chance to read this story at all.

And actually, Dr. Mark Morris, a professor of astronomy at UCLA, confirmed in April 2021 that our sun will probably be our downfall … in about five billion years.

“There’s every expectation that in about five billion more years, that our sun will swell up to become a red giant,” Morris had said. “And then, as it gets larger and larger, it will eventually become what’s called an asymptotic giant branch star – a star whose radius is just under the distance between the sun and the Earth – one astronomical unit in size. So the Earth will be literally skimming the surface of the red giant sun when it’s an asymptotic giant branch star.”

This latest theory, however, claims a massive solar flare could cause severe technological disruptions, such as loss of GPS and the internet. Now we’re talking the end of the world.

Is this screwy theory legit? Well, there’s historical evidence.

In 1859, the strongest recorded solar flare to ever hit Earth caused telegraph wires to burst into flames. In 1921, another event caused fires in electrical equipment and telegraph control rooms around the world. And in 1989, a moderately strong solar storm knocked out power for nine hours in northeast Canada.

But experts dismiss a huge disruption this time around.

Space weather physicist Dr. Tamitha Skov forecasts a 10% chance that an X-class solar flare eruption could occur. And if that happened at the same time as a solar storm, then power grids, mobile networks, shortwave radio, GPS and the internet could be impacted.

However, the strongest solar storm in six years blasted Earth last month, and nobody even saw it coming.

So why is this week any different? It probably isn’t.

Scientists and other learned folks have for years — obviously correctly — dismissed predictions of the end of the world. Of course, if they’re wrong and there isn’t a Monday, none of us will be around to point out that the doomsayers got it right this time.