Jaw-Dropping Aurora Borealis Illuminate the Northern Sky Amid Solar Storm
As night descended across the Earth on Friday, a solar storm suffused the skies with a gorgeous display of aurora borealis, and well, it was jaw-dropping.
For the first time in 20 years, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued a watch for a “very rare” severe geomagnetic storm, which was upgraded to an extreme G5 storm later on Friday. This is the first G5 storm since 2003, and could effect the power grid, as well as radio communications.
Aurora borealis caused by the storm were expected to be visible from Europe, Canada, and several northern U.S. states. On Friday night, they began to appear.
Around midnight BST, lights were visible over Europe, spotted as far north as Glasgow, Scotland, across the United Kingdom, and as far south as Switzerland.
Northern Lights putting on a show in Glasgow tonight! pic.twitter.com/NRXhGJZPaC
— Ciaran Jenkins (@C4Ciaran) May 10, 2024
What a spectacular lightshow in my garden (Norfolk, UK) i cried when j saw it with my own eyes #NorthernLights #Auroraborealis pic.twitter.com/gmFPSYtQoy
— 💙 Paranerdnicky 💙 (@paranerdnicky) May 10, 2024
Lovely bit of Northern Lights action outside of bloody London.😍 pic.twitter.com/hTxesW1F5y
— Lauren Layfield (@LaurenLayfield) May 10, 2024
Strongest aurora in 20 years this evening.
This is the astounding view as far south as Switzerland a short while ago …on top of Jungfraujoch 😍😍
via https://t.co/XN8jh4HhE1 pic.twitter.com/kQMxGYa6LE— Matt Taylor (@MetMattTaylor) May 10, 2024
The lights were also visible to viewers in Russia.
Aurora in Omsk oblast, Russia.
Photo: https://t.co/R3axazVG30 pic.twitter.com/TanJWTYWq5— Kirill Bakanov (@WeatherSarov1) May 10, 2024
The aurora australis bloomed over Tasmania and Australia early on Saturday morning in a gorgeous, other-worldly display of colors.
Absolutely biblical skies in Tasmania at 4am this morning. I’m leaving today and knew I could not pass up this opportunity for such a large solar storm. Here’s the image. I actually had to de-saturate the colours. Clouds glowing red. Insane. Shot on Nikon. Rt appreciated pic.twitter.com/210hlkmoeg
— Sean O' Riordan (@seanorphoto) May 10, 2024
while everyone in the europe was seeing the northern lights, here in australia the southern lights (aka aurora australis) lit up the sky early this morning pic.twitter.com/EWhzMX1iAL
— sara⁷🍊 (@xapobangpo7) May 10, 2024
The stunning solar event is expected to be visible to U.S. residents in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut starting around 8 p.m., but will be most visible between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m., according to the NY Daily News.
The geomagnetic storm is expected to last through the weekend.
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