Whoops, I've been asleepat the astrophysical wheel...

From Spaceweather on Sept. 8th:

"On Sept. 7th at 1740 UT (1:40 p.m. EDT), Earth-orbiting satellites detected a major X17-class solar flare coming from the sun's eastern limb. The blast caused a complete blackout of HF radio transmissions on the daylit side of Earth.

"The source of the flare was returning sunspot 798, which sparked strong auroras in late August. Two weeks of quiet followed those storms while the sunspot transited the farside of the sun -- but now it's back, and it's turning toward our planet again. Explosions later this week and next could produce more radio blackouts and some lovely September auroras."

And from the 14th:

The coronal mass ejection pictured above was hurled into space on Sept. 13th by an X1-class explosion at sunspot 798. This remarkable 'spot has produced nine X-flares since Sept. 7th including a record-setting X17 monster. All by itself, sunspot 798 has made Sept. 2005 the most active month on the sun since March 1991."