From SpaceWeather, December 14 (also on blogroll at right):
Sunspot 3514 erupted on Dec. 14th (1702 UT), producing a strong X2.8-class solar flare. This is the strongest flare of Solar Cycle 25 (so far) and the most powerful eruption the sun has produced since the great storms of Sept. 2017. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the extreme ultraviolet flash:...
....MUCH MORE
We are at or nearing the peak of the current solar cycle and from here through the downslope is when the big bangers tend to happen.
(Carrington event September 1859, just a few months before the solar maximum of 1860.)
From The Royal Observatory of Belgium's SILSO page:
