‘Strongest of its kind’ flare may cause blackouts, massive solar storm on Earth

Could this be the Perfect Geo-storm?

October is off to a hot start: The sun unleashed a massive X-class solar flare — the “strongest of its kind,” — that has the potential to pummel our planet with a powerful geomagnetic storm this week.

The supercharged sunburst eru🌜pted from sunspot A♎R3842 on Tuesday evening.

It clocked in at X7.1, making it the second most powerful in the last seven years after the monster X8.7 magnitude in May,

This also triggered a coronal mass ejection (CME) — when plasma and magnetic particles burst forth from the sun’s surface — which is slated to strike the Earth on Friday at around𓆉 4 p.m𒅌.,

When this occurs, meteorologists predict it will penetrate the Earth’s magnetic field, triggering a strong “G3-class geomagnetic storm” —  the third most powerful category

These phenomena have the potential to impact navigation systems, power grids and even🍒 satellite communications, ꦓSpace.com reported.

They also supercharge aurora displays, often causing these natural light shows to be observed far further south than is typi♋cal.

The flare was one o🅰f two that erupted from sunspot🦹 AR3842 fired this week.

The other was an M-class flare — the second most powerful class — on Monday evening.

Fallout from this outburst caused a temporary radi♐o blackout over l🅰arge swathes of the Pacific Ocean, notably Hawaii.

Fortunately, meteorologists with the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center did not mention any Earth-bound CMEs that were spawned by said flare, Space.com reported.