How a strong solar flare could be impacting our phones

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) - Millions of Americans woke up to disrupted cell phone service Thursday morning.

Although it's not clear what caused a nationwide cell phone service provider outage, strong solar flares/geomagnetic storms can impact radio communications and technology on Earth.

This graph shows the solar flares around 6PM CT Wed and midnight Thu. According to the SWPC, "the GOES-R Extreme Ultraviolet and X-Ray Irradiance Sensors (EXIS) measures light from the sun. These X-ray flares cause changes in the ionosphere and are used by SWPC to give warnings of radio blackouts of terrestrial high frequency (HF) radio communications."

Check out the Space Weather Prediction Center for the latest data.