The last few days, there have been some mentions of solar flares coming towards the Earth. The strongest solar flare in over 30 years was expected to hit the Earth's magnetical field at 6 PM GMT today, but arrived 11 hours early. It could have allowed us to witness a beautiful and widely visible aurora, but on the other hand it could meanwhile also have caused voltage fluctuations, which might have led to some more power blackouts. A less stronger flare back in 1989 did so in Quebec. Satellites, specifically GPS satellites and the like, would be prone to become confused.

Update: The storm caused by the flare's impact seems to have rapidly weakened. There were no power blackouts but unfortunately no widely visible aurora as well. The components in the flare were pointing northwards. Had they pointed south, then we could have found ourselves in a lot more trouble.