Solar Flares and Coronal Mass Ejections Are Inevitable

NASA and ESA are constantly surveying the sun, looking for solar storm, solar flares. How much lead time when we see those signs before one of these things could be coming our way? I'm not sure on the exact amount of time. It takes light about eight minutes to get from the sun to Earth but I assume that scientists that are sitting in the sun are going to be able to predict maybe a couple days in advance.