Shawn Dahl

New Capabilities

Active forecaster coordinating January 2026 storm response

Solar Cycle 25 has entered a dramatic new phase. Just two weeks after the January 19 X1.9 flare and G4.7 geomagnetic storm, a colossal new sunspot region AR4366 rotated into view on February 1 and immediately began an unprecedented barrage of X-class flares. On February 1 at 23:44 UTC, AR4366 unleashed an X8.1 flare—the 3rd-largest flare of the entire Solar Cycle 25—triggering an R3 strong radio blackout across Earth's sunlit hemisphere. Within hours, the region fired four more X-class flares (X2.9, X2.8, X1.5, X1.7), and by February 5 had produced 10 X-class flares in just five days, along with over 100 M-class flares. The region has grown to nearly 10 times Earth's width with a magnetically unstable delta-class configuration that continues crackling with flares.

Updated Feb 5