Hi Chris. The largest flare recorded to date was at 21:51 UT, Monday 2 April 2001, when active region 9393 unleashed a major solar flare. Now reclassified as at least an X20, it appears to be the biggest X-ray flare on record, most likely bigger than the one on 16 August 1989, also an X20 flare, and definitely more powerful that the famous 6 March 1989 flare which was related to the disruption of the power grids in Canada. The big explosion, which took place near the Sun's northwest limb, hurled a coronal mass ejection (CME) into space - at a whopping speed of roughly 7.2 million km/h - but not directly towards Earth. Take Care…Don in creepy town