The outgoing year 2025 may become a record year for the number of magnetic storms in the last 10 years.
"The number of days with magnetic storms in 2025 has reached a maximum in the last 10 years. The total number of geomagnetically disturbed days has reached a 20-year high," said a statement from the Solar Astronomy Laboratory of the Space Research Institute (IKI) of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Since the beginning of 2025, magnetic storms have been observed on 69 occasions (compared to 44 in 2024). An even more significant increase was noted in the total number of days with geomagnetic disturbances. There were 164 such days compared to 94 last year.
An even more significant increase was observed in the total number of days with geomagnetic disturbances when the Kp index reached 4 and above (yellow and red levels). There were 164 such days compared to 94, which is a 75% increase.
Comparable and larger values for the number of days with magnetic storms were last recorded in 2015 (79 cases) and 2016 (69 cases), that is, 10 years ago.
According to experts, the values of 2016 may be surpassed in the remaining week of the year, as a large coronal hole continues to affect the Earth.
In terms of the total number of geomagnetically disturbed days, higher values (169 days) were only observed in 2005, that is, 20 years ago.
The absolute record holder in the 21st century so far is 2003, when 272 geomagnetically disturbed days were registered, with magnetic storms observed on 154 days that year.
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