Don't stock up on food and batteries just yet. This storm is unlike any other most in our age groups have ever seen. The storm isn't even on the Earth, it's on the sun.

Astronomer Mausumi Dikpati of the National Center for Atmospheric research has predicted that come 2012, the Earth will experience a solar maximum, a phenomenon that last happened in 1958. This happens as a sunspot, a huge mass of violent magnetism, intensifies an area of the sun as it causes weird things to happen.

More than a heat storm, the solar max unleashes a barrage of magnetism that can be felt even in the Earth. Dikpati says he won't be surprised if modern electronics such as GPS and mobile phones will be affected.

That's not the only strange thing that can happen. As the sun spot drags on for years and prompts the solar max to rage on, atmospheric and astronomic frills can be seen on Earth. During the last solar max, Aurora Borealis was seen in Mexico.

Dikpati's prediction is bold in the sense that no scientists before him have come close to being able to accurately predict the cycle of sunspots. Once thought of as a semi=random occurrence, Dikpati asserts that there exists such a thing as a "solar conveyor belt" made of magnetism which drags sun spots along a path.

The National Space Science & Technology Center agreed with Dikpati. Solar Physicist David Hathaway said that Dikpati made all the points clear and true. However, he says that the solar max should come in 2011, not 2012. "History shows that big sunspot cycles 'ramp up' faster than small ones," he says.