Northern California could see northern lights as ‘severe’ geomagnetic storm hits

Parts of California could see the northern lights due to a “severe” geomagnetic storm, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The colorful dancing lights known as the aurora borealis could be spotted in the sky on Thursday, Oct. 10, and Friday, Oct. 11, NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center announced on Wednesday, Oct. 9.

“The aurora may become visible over much of the northern half of the country, and maybe as far south as Alabama to Northern California,” NOAA said.

“A fast coronal mass ejection erupted from the sun” on the evening of Tuesday, Oct. 8, and could arrive at Earth on Thursday morning, the Space Weather Prediction Center said on its website.

NOAA issued a G4-level watch warning of a major disturbance in the Earth’s magnetic field.

“ Watches at this level are very rare,” said NOAA, which last issued one in May.

Prior to that, the agency hadn’t issued a G4-level watch since 2005.

The geomagnetic storm coincides with a “strong” solar radiation storm , NOAA said, explaining that storm conditions began Tuesday and could continue into Thursday and Friday.

What are northern lights?

Auroras are caused by the activity of the sun.

“Our sun is constantly spewing out high energy particles out into space,” Kyle Watters, a professor of physics and astronomy at Sacramento State University, previously told The Sacramento Bee. “Those particles honestly would be fairly hazardous to us as human beings, but luckily for us, Earth has a magnetic field.”

This field traps those charged particles, he said, and funnels them either towards the north or south pole.

According to NOAA , the sun’s particles collide with oxygen and nitrogen atoms in the Earth’s atmosphere.

“What ends up happening is those trapped charged particles put on a really pretty light show,” Watters said.

Typically, aurora borealis form about 80 to 500 kilometers — about 50 to 311 miles — above the Earth’s surface, NOAA said on its website.

When did California last see the northern lights?

Auroras are rare in California, but there have been multiple recent sightings.

Many Californians got a look at the northern lights in May.

Colorful lights were seen in the sky across the state, from Joshua Tree National Park in Southern California to the San Francisco Bay Area and the Sacramento area.

The northern lights made an appearance in the Golden State in March 2023, and more sightings were expected that November .

Will aurora borealis be visible in California?

NOAA has an aurora dashboard that predicts the visibility of northern lights.

According to NOAA, northern states bordering Canada, such as Idaho, Montana, North Dakota and Washington state will most likely catch a glimpse of the lights.

Could geomagnetic storm affect tech?

“Detrimental impacts to some of our critical infrastructure technology are possible, but mitigation is possible,” NOAA said.

You can visit the Space Weather Prediction Center’s website to “keep properly informed” about those impacts, the agency said.

Meanwhile, the solar radiation storm could result in “degradation to or loss of (high-frequency) communications in the polar region” and put space launch operations “at risk,” NOAA said, adding that there’s a “slight risk to satellites.”

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