The summer of 2026 proved noticeably more flare-active than the previous one. According to the Solar Astronomy Laboratory of the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, from June to August, 82 flares of class M and above were recorded on the Sun, including three events of the highest class X. A year earlier, over the same period, there were 62 strong flares, and only two X-events. At the same time, the number of days with magnetic storms, on the contrary, decreased almost twofold—from 18 to 9. The most powerful storm of the summer reached a level of Kp=7,3 on 4 July, whereas in 2025 the peak was Kp=8,0. The Sun entered autumn in a relatively calm state, with almost no notable flare activity.
This pause did not last long. On 2 September 2026 at 19:20 UTC, a class M3.0 flare occurred in new active region No. 4524, which was just beginning to emerge from behind the northeastern limb of the solar disk. The event lasted from 18:57 to 19:48 UTC. It caused an R1-level radio blackout on the day side of Earth—from North America to Hawaii. High-frequency communication temporarily degraded due to signal absorption in the ionosphere. The region is only now turning toward Earth and may continue producing flares over the next two weeks. Along with the flare, a coronal mass ejection was recorded, directed predominantly eastward.
On the same day, three tropical cyclones were simultaneously active in the eastern and central Pacific Ocean. Hurricane Lowell rapidly intensified to category 5 with winds near 160 miles per hour, becoming the first such storm in the central part of the basin since 2018. Hurricane Karina maintained category 4 strength, while Tropical Storm Marie off the coast of Mexico was approaching hurricane status. All three systems were on the day side of the planet at the time of the flare. Some observers noted the coincidence: the X-ray emission occurred precisely over the region of active cyclones, again drawing attention to possible links between solar activity and Earth's global electrical circuit.
By the morning of 3 September, the geomagnetic situation remained calm. The bulk of the coronal mass ejection headed eastward, and no serious disturbances of the magnetic field are expected. The new active region will continue to rotate toward Earth, and specialists are closely monitoring its development. The summer showed that even against the backdrop of a declining solar cycle, flare activity can spring surprises, and autumn is only just beginning.
