New Yorkers suffered serious FOMO from missing out on the Northern Lights that everybody else got to see

Bright lights reflecting off the Kosciusko Bridge at night, mistaken for Northern Lights
Some New Yorkers apparently mistook the light reflecting off the Kosciusko Bridge for the Northern Lights during a powerful solar storm Friday night and into Saturday morning.

Thanks to a rare extreme solar storm, tens of millions of people around the world got a spectacular view of the Northern Lights on Friday night.

But in New York, the only thing in the sky was pea soup – even though weather experts said they might have a second shot briefly Sunday just after sunset.

New Yorkers, though, are chronic FOMO sufferers and some posted pics of the supposed light show late Friday and early Saturday.

In reality, the images just showed the lights of local landmarks shining on the low-hanging cloud cover.

“My favorite genre of tweet tonight: people who think they’re seeing the aurora in NYC but in fact are just seeing the lights from the Kosciuszko Bridge reflected in the clouds,” Rebecca Seidel posted on X.

Some on X posted photos from NYC they swear were the Northern Lights; others weren’t so sure and say they are reflections off bridges. X/@BeccaHope24
Some on X posted photos from NYC they swear were the Northern Lights; others weren’t so sure and say they are reflections off bridges. X/@BeccaHope24

Photos and videos of the Northern Lights came in from all over the world, from Ukraine to south Florida and Switzerland, where the lights looked like a painting over the Jungfraujoch.

It was considerably less stellar in the five boroughs.

“It took me hiking to the darkest corner of Inwood in upper Manhattan and using a six second exposure and I’m still not convinced it isn’t just Hudson County reflecting off the haze,” Matthew Kael posted on X.

While a people on X insisted they had glimpsed the Northern Lights from NYC, the majority were pretty sure they hadn’t.

While some said this photo may have been a reflection off a bridge, it’s possible that this was small glimpse of the Lights. X/@BeccaHope24
While some said this photo may have been a reflection off a bridge, it’s possible that this was small glimpse of the Lights. X/@BeccaHope24

“I’m starting a support group for people who didn’t see the Northern Lights last night,” posted one user named Helen Nettleship. “We are valid. Stop erasing our existence Any joiners This is our flag”

The “flag” was a photo of street lights.

A few slapped up the hashtags #NororaBorealis and #ignoraborealis.

Some were good-natured about seeing the spectacular light display everywhere but New York. Others, not so much.

“Me seeing everyone’s northern lights photos but I’m stuck in this filthy f—king bright ass city called NYC,” one person griped.

“I’ve never hated/regretted living in NYC until this moment scrolling through everyone’s pics of the northern lights,” an X user called Max commented.

Said another poster: “No northern lights in nyc…thanks Eric Adams.”

(Adams, of course, was in Rome and does not control the weather.)

The light show was set to continue on Saturday night — but the weather forecast offered more bad news for New Yorkers. Though Saturday began with sunny skies, clouds were expected later in the day with some showers predicted for overnight.

Weather forecasters say New Yorkers may have a small window for when they might glimpse the lights — just after sunset, shortly after twilight ends.

There was no mistaking the celestial phenomenon in this photo of the Northern Lights taken on the shores of Fern Ridge reservoir west of Eugene, Oregon. Chris Pietsch/The Register Guard / USA TODAY NETWORK
There was no mistaking the celestial phenomenon in this photo of the Northern Lights taken on the shores of Fern Ridge reservoir west of Eugene, Oregon. Chris Pietsch/The Register Guard / USA TODAY NETWORK

One option for New Yorkers is to simply watch the livestream of the aurora, sponsored by Explore.org.

The aurora was originally expected to be viewed across a massive arc spanning North America: from Virginia to southern Alabama, covering Colorado and ending in Northern California, with the clearest visibility available to the more northern states.

Geomagnetic storms are caused by strong energy pulses released from the sun that slam against our planet.The source of this storm has been traced to a vast sunspot cluster that’s 17 times the diameter of Earth, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.