Northern California residents witnessed a rare display of the northern lights, with photos from areas like Sacramento, Roseville, and Grass Valley showing the skies glowing in red. This unusual sighting was driven by a strong geomagnetic storm pushing the aurora far south from its usual Arctic locations.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued a G4 storm watch, warning of potential disruptions to satellites and GPS systems. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration described the event as a "major disturbance in the Earth's magnetic field," caused by coronal mass ejections from the sun, as reported by ABC10.
Northern California could see the northern lights between 7 and 10 p.m. PT on Tuesday, said the Space Weather Prediction Center and the University of Alaska. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said a geomagnetic storm could start affecting Earth around midday on Wednesday, with a possible G3-level storm on Thursday, following "the most energetic and fastest" solar eruption in recent days. The current G4-level storm watch is the fourth of this solar cycle, and G5 is the highest level on the geomagnetic storm scale, as mentioned by CBS News Sacramento.
