PHOTOS: Northern Lights return to West Virginia skies

Video : Time-lapse footage of the northern lights from the WBOY-12 Tower Cam on Friday, May 10, 2024.

CLARKSBURG, W.Va. (WBOY) — The skies across north central West Virginia were full of color Thursday night as a “severe” geomagnetic storm struck Earth, bringing the northern lights much further south than usual.

12 News viewers from around the region sent in photos of the northern lights appearing over the night sky, which can normally only be seen near the polar regions of the planet.

Here are just some of the photos that viewers sent in:

The lights’ appearance comes from a “massive” solar flare that was detected on the sun earlier this week, followed by a coronal mass ejection (CME) that was directed toward Earth. Solar radiation storms from the flare began on Wednesday, which have grown the radius of the northern lights to the point where they can be seen clearly in West Virginia and other states in the region.

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