Northern Lights Transform Northern California’s Sky into a Mesmerizing Light Show
On Thursday night, a captivating aurora borealis, also known as the Northern Lights, appeared in the skies above Northern California. This rare spectacle occurred during a strong geomagnetic storm and was captured by PG&E’s Girard Ridge 1 camera at around 9 p.m:
The National Weather Service (NWS) issued a G3 geomagnetic storm alert for Thursday, which allowed Americans in various states, including Idaho, Wisconsin, New York, and Minnesota, to witness the stunning aurora borealis. While geomagnetic storms are mostly harmless to humans, they can potentially disrupt technology, causing voltage issues in power grids, increased drag risk to low-orbiting satellites, and problems with GPS or GNSS devices.
The Northern Lights have been seen in NorCal since March 2022. The NWS didn’t issue the alert until the early morning on Friday, but some photographers were still able to capture stunning images of the rare event. Here are some of our favorites:
Still can’t believe what I witnessed last night (through my camera at least). It wasn’t truly visible to the naked eye, but you could tell something was there. And for the record… my latitude is 39.7285° N. #photography #northernlights #aurora #California pic.twitter.com/6Q7zYcTbZ0
— Michael Steinberg (@MichaelWX18) March 24, 2023
From Yreka! pic.twitter.com/rdMz51ig5V
— Anthony Edwards (@edwardsanthonyb) March 24, 2023
