Much of the planet got to see the fantastic auroras on the 11th/12th. Photos have been rolling in, to news stations, weather sites, friends and relatives around the world, and SpaceWeather.com. The latter has a fabulous photo gallery you can browse through, including information on where they are from. Some photos include foregrounds to show just how unusual the locations are, like one with a cactus foreground from Los Vegas, or pyramids (not from Vegas). Palm trees under red skies are common.
Sadly, they were very unimpressive from our spot in MN, wisps of the palest green moving slowly enough that they might as well have been clouds. But people with the latest smartphones were out showing their pictures just taken (from just over that tree there) which were loaded with color, not just green but some reds as well. I also heard stories from a neighbor who'd just gotten home from work who'd seen cars pulled over along the highways and idiots stepping suddenly from between cars without looking for traffic and nearly getting hit. (You know, because even idiots like a good show and if they've survived this long with those bad habits, they must be invulnerable, right?)
While I was the only one out on the street in front looking for better views, all three of us stepped out from the back door, since our backyard is one of the darkest spots in town, and watched them for a bit, so we could say we'd seen them. While we were mostly disappointed, it was the location where my son and I viewed what was my second most spectacular aurora light show in my life.
It was in the very early 90s, shortly after moving in. The color was an amazing, a brilliant green that covered the entire sky. Unlike this recent one, it came in ribbons and waves, not standing still but dancing wildly over the sky, now waves, now curtains, now crossing the entire view and heading back again, serpentine all the way. It was so ferociously active that I thought it must be making a roar, though we couldn't hear it. I tried calling nearby family, but nobody was answering their phones that late.
As spectacular as that was, the best aurora ever comes from my early teenage years, when we lived in Park Rapids, up in the north country. I was in the band, and thus attended sporting events for the school. Indoor events we had spots on the bleachers, outdoors we marched on the field in a variety of formations during halftime. This night was just before Homecoming, when tradition required a huge bonfire and burning an effigy of the opposing team. I'd never been to one before, had no expectations, and initially was just glad I had a reason to get out of the house. The band director required it, or I wouldn't have been allowed to attend.
After lots of rah-rah stuff, speeches on how we were going to clobber their team, school song by the band, the rest was party, i.e., lighting the fire. As if it were made to order, by the time the flames reached the top of the pile and the effigy, the sky opened up with matching pink/red auroras. I mean the whole sky, not a stripe or two here and there. Somebody turned a mirror upside down on top of the flames, as if the sky agreed with our purpose and celebrated along with us.
Of course, being a kid back then, as indelible as the visual impression still is, I have no clue who won Homecoming that year.
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