Most respondents agreed that there would be very little activity on the sun with all responses being less than 50% chance of a solar event and the majority of the responses being 10% chance or less of a solar event over the following 24 hours.

However, what many people did not see, because it was a little early in the day on Thursday, was a tiny sunspot region forming in the southern hemisphere. (shown here, it is the small cluster in the lower left quadrant. You can click on the image for a larger pciture)

From The Sun Today "Solar activity has increased dramatically over the past few hours. There have been four C-class flares in quick succession. These have been due to a new group of sunspots emerging in the Sun's southern hemisphere."
Below is the data from the GOES satellite showing the increase in activity on July 8th.