Massive Solar Flare Caused Radio Blackout Over Missouri Tuesday

The Earth is in a danger zone right now as we're in the middle of a solar maximum. That was evident Tuesday as a massive solar flare actually caused a radio blackout over Missouri in the late morning hours.

Space Weather shared a harrowing graphic today showing how much of America suffered a blackout Tuesday morning at 11:51am. This map shows where radio waves are being absorbed.

They note that this was mainly a problem for aviators and ham radio operators with some broadcast radio signals possibly being affected, too.

This isn't the bad news though...

They go on to say that Giant sunspot AR3664 is "extra dangerous" and is a Carrington-level sunspot. I wish I were a true space scientist that could explain this better, but the simple explanation is the Earth is magnetically connected to this sunspot so it's important to keep a close watch for more solar flares that could be directed at Earth over the next few weeks. Scientific American says this sunspot is almost identical to the one that caused the 1859 event that if replicated could knock out our power grid and life as we know it.

To give you an idea of the type of solar flare that caused nuisance problems in Missouri today, that was rated as a G3. Sunspot AR3664 is capable of a G5-level storm.

You know you're living in dangerous times when reality starts resembling Nicholas Cage movies, but that's the situation we find ourselves in potentially now.