The sun has a bone to pick with Earth — and it’s not done yet.
A colossal solar storm just zapped the daylight side of the planet, causing global blackouts and knocking out radio signals across Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
The culprit? A fiery X2.7-class solar flare that erupted from sunspot AR4087 early Tuesday morning (May 14), sending charged particles and plasma hurtling toward Earth.
And experts warn, this is just the beginning.
“This is getting intense, especially as this active region turns closer into view,” aurora chaser Vincent Ledvina wrote in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
He also tweeted, “What does this [active region] have planned over the next days… we’ll have to wait and see.”
The storm blasted out at 4:25 a.m. ET and registered as an R3-level event — strong enough to disrupt high-frequency radio signals and scramble communication systems for hours.
NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center confirmed the X2.7 flare, which is on the lower end of the most intense solar flares. Still, it packed enough punch to leave entire regions in a communication dead zone.
Solar flares are ranked on a scale from A to X, Space.com reports, with X-class flares being the most powerful and each rank up represents a tenfold increase in strength.
The higher the number, the stronger the flare — and Tuesday’s X2.7 eruption was enough to light up solar observatories around the world.
And “Flares of this magnitude are not frequent,” according to a statement from the NOAA officials.
Just hours after the X2.7 flare, the same sunspot region unleashed another fiery outburst — a smaller but still formidable M5.3-class flare.
And by Wednesday morning (May 15), AR4087 was at it again, firing off an M7.74-class flare just before 7:20 a.m. ET.
And this is just the beginning, as more blasts are expected as it continues its ominous march toward direct alignment with Earth.
Ledvina warned that this could mean more radio disruptions and power grid issues in the days to come.
These storms have real-world consequences, with space agencies and power companies now on high alert for more potential fallout.
The sun’s explosive outbursts can knock out satellites, mess with GPS systems, and even disrupt power grids — a potential nightmare scenario if the storms grow in intensity.
Scientists say we could be in for a rough solar ride as AR4087 gets into position to hurl its next volley of plasma directly at Earth.
Last month, a rare “cannibal” solar eruption lit up skies from Scotland to the South Pole after two solar blasts merged mid-flight, slamming Earth’s atmosphere on April 15.
