Fire in the sky: Remarkable, once-in-a-lifetime northern lights show dazzles Minnesotans

Many Minnesotans just witnessed the best northern lights show of a lifetime.

One of the strongest geomagnetic storms on record blasted Earth’s magnetosphere Tuesday night. The result was widespread vivid auroras also known as northern lights.

The storm was so strong it produced northern lights as far south as Florida.

Texas and Arizona also saw vivid northern lights shows.

There are even some reports of northern lights in Central America!

I have seen several episodes of northern lights and Tuesday night was by far the best show I have seen in my lifetime. The photos taken overhead across Minnesota are nothing short of magical.

Let’s break down what happened.

G4 to G5 geomagnetic storm

Two powerful coronal mass ejections slammed Earth Tuesday night. The geomagnetic storm was at or near the top of the geomagnetic storm scale, which peaks at a G5 rating.

The planetary KP index peaked at 8.67 on a scale that runs to 9.

The intensity of Tuesday’s solar storm rivals the intense G5 storm of May 2024. The last storm that intense occurred way back in 1989. I remember seeing a vivid display of green auroras overhead in that year.

Corona effect

Something occurred Tuesday night that I’ve never heard of happening in the skies above Minnesota before. The so called auroral oval that typically sits above the Arctic Circle and north polar regions dipped farther south and was visible in the skies above Minnesota.

Several pictures captured the corona effect phenomenon.

You can see in the images where green and red swirl around what looks like the eye of a hurricane. In fact, this pattern is similar to what we observe on Doppler radars when a tornado signature is indicated!

Seeing the auroral oval overhead at this latitude is very rare. I’ve never heard of or seen such an event occur above Minnesota.

Brilliant colors

We saw vivid reds, pinks, greens and other colors in the skies above Minnesota Tuesday night. The brilliant colors are caused by different atoms like oxygen and nitrogen being excited by solar energy slamming Earth’s magnetosphere at different altitudes above us.

Here is a great explainer on how that happens.

Another chance Wednesday night

Another geomagnetic storm is hitting Earth Wednesday. Storm levels of G3 to G4 are observed and likely, but the strongest waves may hit Earth before sunset Wednesday night in the United States.

Here’s an update from forecasters at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center:

So there is another chance for northern lights Wednesday evening, but the strongest energy may have already passed Earth during the daylight hours Wednesday.

Good luck!