A powerful solar storm has sent dazzling aurora borealis displays shimmering across the skies of the United States — reaching as far south as Texas, Alabama, Georgia, and even northern Florida.
Photos and videos flooded social media Tuesday night, capturing ribbons of green, purple, and red light dancing above cities from Minnesota to Florida. The spectacle stems from a burst of solar energy known as coronal mass ejections (CMEs) — waves of charged particles ejected from the sun that collide with Earth’s magnetic field.
The Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) issued a G4 “severe” geomagnetic storm watch for Tuesday and Wednesday — the second-highest level on the five-point scale.
“Several CMEs from an active sunspot cluster are expected to reach Earth’s magnetic field over the next two nights,” explained Shawn Dahl, a space weather forecaster at SWPC. “An even stronger CME is expected midday Wednesday, possibly pushing the auroras farther south than usual.”
What a G4 storm means
When solar winds surge through Earth’s magnetosphere, they energize gases in the upper atmosphere, creating the northern lights — those ethereal, glowing curtains of color rippling across the sky.
While beautiful, G4 storms can cause voltage control problems, GPS errors, and radio or satellite disruptions. Still, most people will only notice the mesmerizing skies rather than any technological impacts.
From Nelson County, Virginia, to Crested Butte, Colorado, and Sioux Falls, South Dakota, the auroras painted a breathtaking canvas of color. Even Saint Francis, Minnesota, and parts of Florida’s Panhandle reported sightings rarely seen at such low latitudes.
As Dahl noted, these celestial shows are reminders that, despite humanity’s technological advances, the sun remains the ultimate force shaping our planet’s skies.
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