Solar Storm Brings Northern Lights to U.S.

Did you see the Northern Lights displays this week? If you did, you’re not alone!

The U.S. National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) issued a Geomagnetic Storm Watch on May 4^th, predicting a geomagnetic storm in the earth’s atmosphere on May 5^th and 6^th. According to NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC), the geometric storm was the result of a recent coronal mass ejection (CME) from the sun.

NOAA’s Watch notice indicated that the geometric storm could result in the appearance of aurora light displays that would be visible over some northern and upper Midwest states in the U.S. from New York to Idaho.

According to NOAA’s SWPC, intense space weather events can cause aurora lights to appear at a greater distance from Earth’s poles than normal.

NOAA’s May 4th Geomagnetic Storm Watch notice is available at the NOAA SWPC website.