Aurora Borealis Could Dip Down To Alabama, Northern California Monday

ACROSS AMERICA — People in parts of United States who aren’t used to seeing the aurora borealis were treated to a jaw-dropping light show Sunday, and more northern lights displays Monday are possible as far south as Alabama and northern California.

On Friday, the sun let off a huge burst of energy known as a coronal mass ejection that triggered the ethereal displays, according to the Space Weather Prediction Center at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

CMEs, as they’re known, have their own magnetic fields. The giant blob of energy traveled toward Earth at around 2 million miles per hour, according to NOAA, setting off a severe geomagnetic storm.

NOAA said a watch for a moderate geomagnetic storm remains in effect Monday in states through the nation’s midsection. Aurora forecasts are notoriously tricky and can quickly change. The best times to look are between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m., away from dark areas and city lights, according to NOAA.

The geomagnetic storm Sunday one was a doozie, registering 4 out of 5 on NOAA’s space weather G- scale) at 3:26 p.m. EDT Sunday. Just a few hours later people in more than two dozen states stopped to gasp and snap photos.

Social media feeds saw a steady stream of spectacular images, both from the National Weather Service and casual observers. “Absolutely incredible #aurora happening right now, visible to the naked eye,” Adam Springer, a forecaster for the National Weather Service in Dodge City, Kansas, tweeted Sunday just after 11:15 p.m.

“It won’t quit,” a Twitter user said of aurora displays in northwest Arkansas. The auroras were seen in multiple places in the Midwest, including Illinois and Nebraska.

The National Weather Service in Riverton, Wyoming, tweeted a series of photos that showed the vividly painted sky.

Serious aurora hunters have been waiting for this time in an 11-year cycle in which the sun’s magnetic field flips polarity. We’re a year away from the peak of what is called “solar maximum” and are likely to see an increase in solar storms through 2028, triggering more of the red, green, purple and yellow curtains of light.

• Read More: Why Aurora Borealis Displays Are More Likely | Northern Lights Hunting Tips

“This increased activity from the sun is consistent with the current state and timing of the solar cycle,” NOAA space scientist Rob Steenburgh said Monday in a news release. “Energetic events like solar flares and coronal mass ejections have become more frequent in the past year, and especially in the past month, and we expect activity to continue ramping up to the peak next year.”

The sun has negative and positive polarity, just like Earth. During the reversal of polarity — that is, negative becomes positive, and positive becomes negative. That causes more sunspots and lots of space weather.