A solar storm revealed the magical illumination of the Northern Lights across the United States on Thursday evening as the celestial event struck Earth.
The Northern Lights – also known as the aurora borealis – are a natural light phenomenon in the night sky that is most commonly observed in the aurora zone – an area within 2,500 kilometers of the North Pole.
The phenomenon occurs when charged particles from the sun collide directly into the Earth’s magnetic field. The reaction transforms the dark sky into one that glows vibrantly with swirling curtains of colored light, including green, pink, red, yellow, blue and violet.
Normally the lights can only be seen in areas such as Scandinavia, Alaska and Iceland. But the timing of Thursday’s solar storm provided a beautiful show not only for Europe, but also for North America.
The Northern Lights were seen Thursday evening in Key Largo, Florida
A user on
New York City was able to catch a glimpse of the colored spot in the night sky.
On social media, people as far south as Washington DC and Kentucky could also witness the neon pink and hazy purple skies, The New York Times reported.
“I’m just shocked that it took my whole life to see it,” Gabriela Aguilar, a 37-year-old New Yorker, told The New York Times.
As she stepped onto the roof of her Harlem apartment building with her dog, she saw the sky turn pink, purple and green.
“And – of all places – to see it in New York City!” she added.
The light show started with a solar storm – a sudden explosion of particles, energy, magnetic substances and material blown into the solar system by the sun. NASA reported.
Earth’s protective magnetic bubble was temporarily disrupted and the fast-moving ejection hit the planet at nearly 1.5 million miles per hour, The Washington Post reported.
The Northern Lights were captured in Lexington, Kentucky after the massive solar storm
A hue of purple and green curtains of light was captured in Zimmerman, Minnesota
People in Salida, Colorado witnessed the pink and purple skies after the solar storm
When the sun’s particles interact with the gases in Earth’s atmosphere, such as nitrogen and oxygen atoms, they release colored lights into the sky at dusk.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration classified the recent storm as “severe,” with a four out of five severity rating.
If the storm were to expand to “extreme intensity” – a level seen only twice in the past two decades – the display could be seen with the naked eye as far south as Florida.
The storm may persist through Friday morning, but is expected to decrease in severity and drop to “strong” or even “moderate” levels.
The storm, or coronal mass ejection, produces an influx of energy and particles when it hits Earth.
The incident could potentially disrupt power, GPS and communications systems, the New York City Department of Emergency Management said in a post on X.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration classified the recent storm as ‘severe’, ranking it a four out of five in severity
The storm may persist through Friday morning, but is expected to decrease in severity and drop to ‘strong’ or even ‘moderate’ levels
Norway is one of the best places in the world to see the Northern Lights as it is located in the heart of the aurora zone in the Norwegian Arctic
But despite the disruptions, the department suggested there was no real reason for New Yorkers to worry.
The solar storm hit Earth about 14 hours after Hurricane Milton made landfall in Florida on Wednesday night, potentially impacting some recovery efforts.
Emergency measures, including communications systems that rely on satellites in low Earth orbit or high-frequency communications, risk damaging power grids already weakened by the hurricanes and further disrupting navigation systems, The Washington Post said.
In previous major solar storms, planes have been diverted due to radio signal interference. Some GPS systems lost their accuracy. Satellites were put into safe mode and successfully deorbited.
But NOAA’s Weather Prediction Center has already made contact with several government agencies involved in recovery operations.
Either way, thousands of Americans were able to witness what could be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity from the aurora borealis.
People rushed to X to share photos of their thoughts on the rare incident.
The photos were taken from dozens of states across the country and each one appears to look slightly different, but no less beautiful, than the last.