Watch out for solar flares!

A major solar flare unleashed Tuesday began to punish Earth's protective magnetic field early Wednesday. The storm, perhaps the third most powerful on record, could have more effect than one in 1989 that knocked out power to an entire Canadian province.
Depending on the storm's magnetic orientation, it could set off a dramatic display of colorful Northern Lights well into mid-latitudes of the United States and Europe into early Thursday.
Already early Wednesday, the NASA-run web site Spaceweather.com reported aurora had been spotted as far south as Bishop, in central California, signaling the storm's swift arrival.
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