WATCH THE STRONGEST X CLASS SOLAR FLARE OF THE SPACE AGE!

James Kaufman will report today the strongest X-class solar flare of the space age. 22 years ago today, the sun unleashed the strongest X-ray solar flare of the space age. The underlying sunspot was not facing Earth. Otherwise, we might have experienced another Carrington event. Instead, the debris flew harmlessly off the sun's western limb. Stick around, it gets much more interesting in just a moment. This is a picture of the actual flare from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory from 2003. The explosion on, of course, November 4, 2003 was so intense that at first no one knew how strong it was. X-ray detectors onboard of GOES satellite were saturated for 11 minutes. Because of this, the readings stopped at X17.4, but clearly it was stronger. Shortwave radios in North America went silent as the continent experienced a deep radio blackout, a hint at the flare's true severity. Eventually, researchers figured it out. Our personal favorite estimate comes from this paper which describes how Earth's ionosphere was used as a giant solar flare detector. The answer? About an X-45. This has been confirmed by several other studies. This puts it in the same ballpark as the Carrington event. There were no X-ray detectors in the 19th century. But researchers have used indirect methods to estimate the intensity of the Carrington flare on September 1st, 1859. Studies of auroras, ice cores, magnetic disturbances all suggest that the flare was around an X45. Although some estimates take the flare as being as high as an X80. Now that's the Carrington event. Now for the interesting part. November 4th, 2003, the flare occurred during the declining phase of solar cycle 23, exactly 22 years ago today. We're at the same point, and we're in the declining part of solar cycle 25, as any good space weather forecasters will tell you, the downslope of any solar cycle. It's the primest time for big X-flares and large explosions. No one really knows why, but it turns out to be true time and time again. Taking a look at Solar Cycle 23, the big X-45 flare on November 4, 2003, occurred right here. Now, we're supposedly exactly 22 years after that today. And each solar cycle is supposed to be exactly 11 years long. So that would bring us to the declining part of Solar Cycle 25, as you see right here. And I think based on the setup for this month, going into next month, there's a very good chance that we could see a similar sized X-Flare. Don't be surprised if it happens again. And I mean in the next few weeks. Time will tell, but it's setting up perfectly. God bless. Please share, subscribe, and always remember, anything's possible, Bizarro World.