Major geomagnetic storms (Dst change exceeding 60 &ggr;) adn cosmic ray storms (changes exceeding 3% for the Alert neutron monitor) are compared for the period November 1956 through August 1973. The parameters of the two phenomena show virtually no intercorrelation. Interplanetary disturbances, characterized by enhanced number density and speed of solar wind and enhanced magnetic field, are responsible For both these phenomena. for cosmic ray storms, only an interplanetary magnetic blob seems in general to be necessary. However, the quantitative relationship between the total magnetic field and cosmic ray storm magnitudes is poor, and occasionally large blobs produce very small cosmic ray effects or vice versa, often not simultaneously. It is surmised that the blobs as recorded by the present day space probes (confined near th ecliptic plane) are only crude indicators of the main configurations (perhaps magnetic bottles) that cause the cosmic ray changes, with their cores not always hitting the earth directly. For geomagnetic storms the most important parameter seems to be the Bz (southward) component of th interplanetary magnetic field, which may or may not have any relation to the other characteristics of the blob. Several other details are discussed.