On May 10, most of Canada witnessed a breathtaking display of the northern lights due to a geomagnetic storm that impacted North America.
Although aurora and geomagnetic storms are relatively frequent, flares of this magnitude are rare. The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration had issued an alert about the “severe” geomagnetic storm, classed as G4 — the first of that strength since 2005.
“You’ll only get a couple of those over the whole course of the decade of the solar cycle,” Matthew Cimone, head interpreter at the HR MacMillan Space Centre in Vancouver, told Daily Hive.
People rushed to viewing points and shared photos of the northern lights that lit up the sky.
Euan McGhee (Submitted)
If you couldn’t do so due to bad weather or another reason, you now have another chance to see nature’s light show.
The US’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Centre forecasts another geomagnetic storm on the night of Friday, May 31, and early hours of Saturday.
Though this one won’t be as intense — it is classed as G2, not G4 — there’s a good chance the aurora borealis will be visible from Canada and much of North America.
NOAA
“A CME associated with the X1.4 flare, produced by Region 3697 earlier in the period, is likely to enhance the Earth’s magnetic field late on May 31 into early on June 1 (UTC),” reads NOAA’s website.
“CME” is short for “Coronal Mass Ejection,” which refers to an eruption of solar materials.
What’s the weather looking like in your area? Hopefully, the skies clear up by late Friday night so you can witness nature’s dazzling pink and green sparkles.
If you take some great photos and want to share them, email us at [email protected] to be included in a potential image roundup for Daily Hive.
Happy sky-gazing!
With files from Daily Hive’s Irish Mae Silvestre