{"id":43797,"date":"2025-11-12T15:03:24","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T15:03:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/43797\/"},"modified":"2025-11-12T15:03:24","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T15:03:24","slug":"solar-storms-create-colorful-northern-lights-as-far-south-as-florida-and-arizona","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/43797\/","title":{"rendered":"Solar storms create colorful northern lights as far south as Florida and Arizona"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The northern lights (aurora borealis) fill the sky as it is seen from Salgotarjan, northern Hungary, early Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2025. (Peter Komka\/MTI via AP) <\/p>\n

NEW YORK \u2014 Solar storms brought colorful auroras to unexpected places in the U.S. on Tuesday night, and there could be more to come.<\/p>\n

Space weather forecasters confirmed that storms reached severe levels on Tuesday, triggering vibrant northern lights as far south as Arizona, Florida and Texas.<\/p>\n

There were some impacts to GPS communications and the power grid, Shawn Dahl with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in a video posted on X.<\/p>\n

Over the past few days, the sun has burped out several bursts of energy called coronal mass ejections. Two have reached Earth, but at least one more is still on the way and could arrive sometime on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\"\"The northern lights fill the sky behind the Saint Joseph the Woodworker Shrine Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025, near Valley Falls, Kan. (AP Photo\/Charlie Riedel) <\/p>\n

Forecasters think this solar outburst could be the most energetic of the three and have issued a severe storm alert. How bright the auroras are and how far south they are visible will depend on when the burst gets here and how it interacts with Earth\u2019s magnetic field and atmosphere.<\/p>\n

The sun is at the maximum phase of its 11-year activity cycle, making the light displays more common and widespread. Colorful northern lights have decorated night skies in unexpected places and space weather experts say there are more auroras still to come.<\/p>\n

Aurora displays known as the northern and southern lights are commonly visible near the poles, where charged particles from the sun interact with Earth\u2019s atmosphere.<\/p>\n

Skygazers are spotting the lights deeper into the United States and Europe because the sun is going through a major face-lift. Every 11 years, its magnetic poles swap places, causing magnetic twists and tangles along the way.<\/p>\n

Last year, the strongest geomagnetic storm in two decades slammed Earth, producing light displays across the Northern Hemisphere. And soon afterward, a powerful solar storm dazzled skygazers far from the Arctic Circle when dancing lights appeared in unexpected places including Germany, the United Kingdom, New England and New York City.<\/p>\n

The sun\u2019s active spurt is expected to last at least through the end of this year, although when solar activity will peak won\u2019t be known until months after the fact, according to NASA and NOAA.<\/p>\n

Solar storms can bring more than colorful lights to Earth.<\/p>\n

When fast-moving particles and plasma slam into Earth\u2019s magnetic field, they can temporarily disrupt the power grid. Space weather can also interfere with air traffic control radio and satellites in orbit. Severe storms are capable of scrambling other radio and GPS communications.<\/p>\n

In 1859, a severe solar storm triggered auroras as far south as Hawaii and set telegraph lines on fire in a rare event. And a 1972 solar storm may have detonated magnetic U.S. sea mines off the coast of Vietnam.<\/p>\n

Space weather experts aren\u2019t able to predict a solar storm months in advance. Instead, they alert relevant parties to prepare in the days before a solar outburst hits Earth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The northern lights (aurora borealis) fill the sky as it is seen from Salgotarjan, northern Hungary, early Wednesday,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43798,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28764,28,30,29],"class_list":["post-43797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-aurora-borealis","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43797\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}