Residents near the California-Oregon border may get another rare chance this weekend at seeing the northern lights illuminate the skies, following a huge solar storm that on Friday sparked auroras across the world.
Auroras were visible through much of the North State, and people living in Mount Shasta, the Redding area and Cottonwood thrilled by the unusual sighting, reported after 11:15 p.m., were sharing their best photos of the vibrant red, deep purple, faint green lights.
“You could see faint pink heading on Highway 299 past Old Shasta and it got brighter the farther out you went,” said Aaron Williams, a Redding resident and freelance journalist who writes for the Record Searchlight.
Williams witnessed the lights from Whiskeytown Lake, about 10 miles west of Redding. “A decent amount of people were out watching too.”
The light show was even visible to residents near the Mojave Desert in Southern California.
It’s possible the skies may light up again on Saturday night. The event is being caused by a geomagnetic storm that erupted from a sunspot cluster on the sun’s surface, NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center announced on Thursday. That has not been seen since January 2005.
Scientists had observed at least five “earth-directed coronal mass ejections” that began on Friday and were expected to continue through Sunday possibly. “This is an unusual event,” NOAA said.
The Space and Weather Prediction Center has an aurora forecast map that shows the path of the northern lights. It will be visible in many parts of the world, including wide swaths of the United States. Oregon, Nebraska, Indiana, Pennsylvania and New York residents are expected to catch a glimpse. But visibility will depend on shifting factors that include weather, USA TODAY reported.
Northern lights are only visible at night time, and experts say they are best viewed away from big city centers and out in rural areas.
First appeared on www.redding.com