Dazzling Northern Lights displays bid adieu as historic geomagnetic storm fades away

Historic geomagnetic solar storm that peaked at Level 5 starts to wane after splashing dazzling hues of Northern Lights in US skies.

The weekend's historic geomagnetic storm gave way to the mesmerising, twinkling display of the Northern Lights in the US. Southern states as far down as Florida and Texas witnessed the dazzling marvel, sparking the sky with jaw-dropping shades of pink, purple, green and more. However, it's time to bid farewell to the wondrous sight as the Aurora Borealis' originating source has finally started to fade out gradually.

The northern lights, or aurora borealis, are visible over Lake Washington, in Renton, Wash., on Friday evening, May 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson) (AP)

The National Oceania and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) describes a geomagnetic storm as “a major disturbance of Earth's magnetosphere that occurs when there is a very efficient exchange of energy from the solar wind into the space environment surrounding Earth.”

Fox Weather reported that this Friday-Saturday event transpired after solar flares emanated from a colossal sunspot with the width of 17 Earths. Ultimately, the resulting historic geomagnetic storm activity peaked at Level 5 “extreme” conditions.

These levels sporadically kept going up and down over the weekend, but they eventually shot back up to Level 5, which spurred NOAA to issue a Geomagnetic Storm Warning. This weekend's storm was the first one to blast Earth with its “extreme” Level 5 conditions since October 2023.

Northern Lights displays to fade out as geomagnetic storm starts to wane

This warning expired on Monday morning once the magnetic storm started to wane.

Despite the beautiful display in the US skies, their origins impacted the power grid. NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) reported notices of power grid issues, further dampening high-frequency communications and GPS. It also resulted in significant power outage problems in Sweden.

Earlier this weekend, farm equipment supplier LandMark Implement wrote on X/Twitter: “Thread: Please be advised that there is significant solar flare and space weather activity currently affecting GPS and RTK networks. This severe geomagnetic storm is the worst since 2005 and is forecasted to continue throughout the weekend.”

SpaceX founder Elon Musk tweeted later that day, addressing how the geomagnetic storm had impacted Starlink satellites. “Major geomagnetic solar storm happening right now. Biggest in a long time. Starlink satellites are under a lot of pressure, but holding up so far,” he said on the social media platform.