Yes! The article Meerie posted is what I intuitively "wanted" to believe. And look at that; I read an article trying to point out (amongst other things) that all this energy coming in is actually positive, not going to kill us or cause some horrible cataclysm. Its just bringing in a new age. 
If you look at the above post, the time that they decided to bring down the NOAA systems for an "upgrade" is the same solar flare that hit in the article Meerie posted. It had a crazy powerful effect on us for a flare that wasn't that big, then we were hit by a much bigger one only days later and it had a lesser effect. NOAA is the agency that normally gives everyone a chance to see what our solar/magnetic weather is like.
I wonder if it wasnt an upgrade and it was that solar flare scrambling all their computer systems on the satelites used to measure/monitor that stuff.
Forgot to post this article from NASA that tells us how the same CME in question dumped enough electricity into our upper atmosphere to power New York City for 2 years. Also found the video version that does a pretty good job of explaining things in lamens terms: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEFQHDSYP1I

If you look at the above post, the time that they decided to bring down the NOAA systems for an "upgrade" is the same solar flare that hit in the article Meerie posted. It had a crazy powerful effect on us for a flare that wasn't that big, then we were hit by a much bigger one only days later and it had a lesser effect. NOAA is the agency that normally gives everyone a chance to see what our solar/magnetic weather is like.
I wonder if it wasnt an upgrade and it was that solar flare scrambling all their computer systems on the satelites used to measure/monitor that stuff.

Forgot to post this article from NASA that tells us how the same CME in question dumped enough electricity into our upper atmosphere to power New York City for 2 years. Also found the video version that does a pretty good job of explaining things in lamens terms: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEFQHDSYP1I