Depending on where you are in Florida, you either were unable to see last night’s northern lights or were lucky enough to catch a glimpse of the purple, pink and green hues in the sky. Despite original reports that the northern lights (or aurora borealis) would not be seen throughout Florida, many in the Sunshine State were treated to the beautiful display. And they had the images to show for it, which naturally have taken over social media.
Taking off on a flight from Tampa, St. Pete resident Chase Nawrocki captured the phenomenon in a Facebook post:
Southern Floridians also shared photos of the jaw-dropping display on X, formerly Twitter. Here’s a shot of the aurora in Collier County by user Garrett Harvey:
National Weather Service Meteorologist Luke Culver shared the colorful shots, including along U.S. 27:
Amazingly, the northern lights could even be seen in Key Largo, as shared by Photographer and Storm Chaser Mike Theiss:
Over in Loxahatchee, “HurricaneXplorer” David Velez had multiple images to share:
And Storm Chaser Jeff Gammons’ incredible sight near Lake Okeechobee:
The northern lights appeared around the globe due to a geomagnetic storm that began to impact the Earth on Friday, May 10. It’s the strongest solar storm recorded in over 20 years, classified as an “extreme” G5 by the NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center. Geomagnetic storms are ranked from G1 to G5, with those rated G5 capable of affecting communications and GPS.
The geomagnetic storm is expected to last through the weekend, with another chance to catch the light show again on Saturday. For more updates, visit the NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center here.
If the northern lights aren’t visible to you, be it light pollution from all the city lights or simply location, you can still experience it on Explore.org’s online livestream. That way you don’t miss out!