Activity on the sun on Sunday caused a geomagnetic storm sizeable enough to create the possibility, however minute, that sometime Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning, Colorado residents will be able to view the Aurora Borealis, also known as the Northern lights.
All that you have to do is move away from the city lights — preferably somewhere with a minimum of cloud cover.
And even then, said Ken Tugnell of the Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) in Boulder, “I wouldn’t bet a paycheck on it.”
There have been sightings in the Dakotas and Michigan, and as far away as Europe, Tugnell said. And while the conditions are still conducive for some parts of the nation, chances are it won’t happen in Colorado.
The possibility arose because two blasts of magnetic plasma left the sun on Sunday, combined and arrived on Earth about 15 hours earlier and much stronger than expected, the SWPC said in an Associated Press story.
This storm ranks a 4 (severe), on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s 1-to-5 scale for geomagnetic effects. It is the strongest solar storm to blast Earth since the fall of 2013. It’s been nearly a decade since a level 5 storm — termed extreme — has hit our planet.
Anthony Cotton: 303-954-1292, acotton@denverpost.com or
