Forecast Is Solar Stormy, With Slim Chance You'll Notice March 8, 2012, 10:00 am NASA video of a solar flare that erupted this week, resulting in a so-called solar storm expected to reach Earth on Thursday. There's a major storm front coming. Or maybe it has already passed, and nothing happened. NASA said on Wednesday that two large solar flares would send "a severe geomagnetic storm" toward Earth that could cause "possible disruption to high frequency radio communication, global positioning systems (GPS) and power grids." The space agency added: Besides the August 2011 X-class flare, the last time the sun sent out flares of this magnitude was in 2006. There was an X6.5 on Dec. 6, 2006, and an X9.0 on Dec. 5, 2006. Like the most recent events, those two flares erupted from the same region on the sun, which is a common occurrence. That announcement caused a storm of its own, sparking numerous hyperbolic reports about dangers to air travel and communications systems from large clouds of charged particles rushing at the Earth at millions of miles per hour. NASA predicted that the solar storm would reach the planet "at about 1:25 AM EST on the morning of March 8 (plus or minus 7 hours)," which means that we may be in the clear now. But even if their calculations on the timing were off, the risk posed by this routine celestial event is minimal. During the course of the 11-year sunspot cycle, roughly 200 storms of this magnitude or stronger can be expected, and as we get closer to the year's anticipated solar maximum, this will become a several-times-a-week event. Kenneth Chang contributed reporting.