Update 27 August 2026: Newly updated forecast with Full Sun Map and GEOCHRON current conditions segments! I have also included the 5-Day Outlooks below. Now open to the public.
Original Post: 26 August 2026: Hi All! Solar activity is getting more interesting by the moment! It is clear we are in the middle of a Rossby surge, which has caused multiple new regions to emerge quite quickly over the past few days. This is why we now have 4 partially Earth-directed solar storms headed our way, with a promise of more! All of these storms thus far have launched at or near Region 4513, which is by far the most active of the big flare players on the disk right now. However, new Regions 4518 and 4519 are not far behind and are already firing low-level flares. I go over all of this and more in my new Solar Storm Forecast, here for you about 12 hours before the public gets access.
Aurora photographers should expect some fast solar wind starting off some mild fireworks sometime around the 27th, with the bigger solar storms hitting on the 28th and 29th. With multiple storms hitting, we might see aurora shows linger until August 30th, especially at high latitudes. Amateur radio operators and GPS users should expect some signal degradation on both the dayside and nightside of Earth this week. Not only do we have a decent chance for R1-R2 level radio blackouts on the dayside, but the extended aurora shows could cause some disruptions on the nightside as well. At least the radiations storm (that began way back on the 21st) has now died down, so the noise from the polar cap absorption event, at high latitudes and over the poles, should have finally subsided.
Learn the details of the coming storms and watch the new active regions grow in this exclusive. I will update this forecast with the Full Sun Map segment and include the 5-Day Outlooks here before public release tomorrow.
