The northern lights are seen in the skies over the refuge hut on the causeway leading to Holy Island in Northumberland, on the North East coast of England, in the early hours or Friday morning. (Owen Humphreys/PA Images via Getty Images)
For the second time in as many weeks, a “severe” geomagnetic storm produced a dazzling northern lights show on Thursday for millions of stargazers in the United States and around the world.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center, the solar storm was classified as a G4 out of G5 on the severity scale, making the aurora borealis or northern lights visible as far south as Texas and Florida.
Photographers across the world captured images of the celestial display.
The aurora borealis light up the night sky over Pitstone Windmill in Buckinghamshire, Pitstone, United Kingdom, on Thursday. (Jim Dyson/Getty Images)
The Northern Lights are seen in Sugarloaf Key, just 15 miles from Key West on October 10, 2024. (Jen Golbeck/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
An aurora borealis from the Pujalt astronomical observatory, on 11 October, 2024 in Pujalt, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. (Lorena Sopena/Europa Press via Getty Images)
Geomagnetic storms occur when explosions on the sun trigger eruptions of solar material known as “coronal mass ejections,” or “where a billion tons or so of plasma from the sun, with its embedded magnetic field, arrives at Earth,” NOAA explained.
The Northern Lights, also known as the aurora borealis, on display in the skies above The Kissing Trees near Kinghorn in Fife, UK on October 11, 2024. (Jane Barlow/PA Images via Getty Images)
Aurora borealis, or northern lights, illuminate the sky over the Jinshanling Great Wall on October 11, 2024 in Daqing, Heilongjiang Province of China. (VCG via Getty Images)
The Northern Lights or Aurora Borealis are visible over the Tappan Zee or Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge Bridge on October 11, 2024 near New York City. (Roy Rochlin/Getty Images)
The agency had warned that the storm could cause power grid fluctuations and briefly disrupt satellite, radio and GPS communications.
But NOAA said that the warning was mostly “to notify officials and critical infrastructure operators, so you can enjoy the beauty of the aurora.”
The night sky in Wisconsin glows with the Northern Lights as a geomagnetic storm brings vibrant pink and green colors to a majority of the northern states on October 10, 2024. (Ross Harried/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
An aurora borealis, also known as the northern lights, makes an appearance over pumpjacks as they draw out oil and gas from well heads near Cremona, Alberta, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024. (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press via AP)
The night sky in Wisconsin glows with the Northern Lights as a geomagnetic storm brings vibrant pink and green colors to a majority of the northern states on October 10, 2024. (Ross Harried/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Northern lights (Aurora Borealis) illuminate the sky in Bozkurt district, Kastamonu, Turkiye on October 11, 2024. (Umit Yorulmaz/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Northern Lights, also known as aurora borealis, light up the sky in Portland, Maine on October 10, 2024, in this still image obtained from a social media video. (@RobWrightImages via X/via Reuters)
The Northern Lights, also known as the Aurora Borealis, are seen in the sky over Knaresborough, England, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024. (Andrew Hawkes via AP)
The Northern Lights, also known as the Aurora Borealis, are seen over Holy Island in Northumberland, the North East coast of England, early Friday, Oct. 10, 2024. (Owen Humphreys/PA via AP)
The Northern Lights, also known as the Aurora Borealis, seen in an incredible display in the skies over the refuge hut on the causeway leading to Holy Island in Northumberland, on the North East coast of England, in the early hours or Friday morning on October 11, 2024. (Owen Humphreys/PA Images via Getty Images)
