Geomagnetic storm brings dazzling northern lights to U.S. skies

A surge in energized solar particles hurling toward the Earth is lighting up the skies as far south as Florida with dazzling displays, which meteorologists say is powerful enough to knock out a few radios

A surge in energized solar particles hurling toward the Earth is lighting up the skies as far south as Florida with dazzling displays, which meteorologists say is powerful enough to knock out a few radios.

The red, purple and green hues colored skies in Alabama, Ohio and Texas, and forecasters at the Space Weather Prediction Center have said the geomagnetic storm could intensify as the "final and most energetic CME," meaning coronal mass ejection, is yet to arrive and could reach Earth on Wednesday afternoon.

The northern lights visible over Minneapolis due to a major geomagnetic storm and heightened solar activity.Steven Garcia / ReutersA CME is an eruption of massive clouds of protons, electrons and magnetic fields from the sun’s outer atmosphere at very high speeds.

When it reaches the Earth’s magnetic field, also called the magnetosphere, it collides with the particles around the planet, producing colorful light known as aurora borealis in the Northern Hemisphere and aurora australis in the Southern Hemisphere.

The aurora borealis lights up the night sky over Monroe, Wisconsin, on Tuesday.Ross Harried / NurPhoto via Getty ImagesShawn Dahl, a forecaster at NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center in Boulder, Colorado, said two CMEs had already reached Earth, resulting in a geomagnetic storm which reached G4 — the second-highest rating on a five-step scale.