What a Weekend! Spectacular Aurora Photos from Around the World

“A dream come true.”
“I never expected this!”
“The most amazing light show I’ve ever seen in my life!”
“Once in a lifetime!”
“No doubt, this weekend will be remembered as ‘that weekend.’”

That’s how people described their views of the Aurora borealis this weekend, which put on a breathtaking celestial show around the world, and at lower latitudes than usual. This allowed hundreds of millions of people to see the northern lights for the first time in their lives. People as far south as Arizona and Florida in the US and France, Germany and Poland in Europe got the views of their life as a series of intense solar storms – the most powerful in more than 20 years – impacted Earth’s atmosphere starting Friday and through the weekend.

As we reported on Friday, a giant Earth-facing sunspot group named AR3664 hurled at least six coronal mass ejections our way, triggering a dazzling display of breathtaking celestial shows over several nights. NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center issued a geomagnetic storm watch in anticipation of G4 or G5 events; G5 is the highest rating on NOAA’s space weather scale. This means not only was there a spectacular sky show, but some electrical grid systems could have experienced blackouts; however, there was no widespread reports of any problems or damage to electrical grids.

“Watches at this level are very rare,” the SWPC said in an advisory on Saturday.

Let’s take a look at the incredible views of our readers and friends, many shared on Universe Today’s Flickr page. Our lead image comes from Julien Looten, who took this photo at the cliffs of Étretat in northern France. Looten said, “These auroras began to be visible around 10:30 PM, even before nightfall… From then on, they were visible to the naked eye until dawn… Without interruption…”