Auroras In Florida For First Time In Decades; Cold Records Continue To Fall Across U.S.; Europe Set For Spring Freeze; + Australia’s Polar Outbreak
Auroras In Florida For First Time In Decades
Forecasters did not see this one coming; another sign of our weakening magnetic field strength.
On March 23-24, during a surprise severe G4 geomagnetic storm–the most intense in 6 years–auroras spread into the United States as far south as Florida.
Nothing obvious caused the storm. There was no strong solar wind stream, no direct hit from a Coronal Mass Ejection. NOAA scientists think it may have been the result of the ripple effect of a near-miss CME on March 23. But all that’s known for sure is just how depleted our planet’s defensive shield has gotten–in line with its migrating magnetic poles/low solar activity.
On March 24, auroras descended all the way to Florida, which hasn’t happened in some 20 years.
Bill Williams captured the display from the Chiefland Astro Village:
“My 26-minute exposure taken to capture the Winter Milky Way showed an unusual red glow,” said Williams.
“As far as I know, at 29.4 degrees north latitude, we are the farthest south this aurora has been witnessed … [This] is the first I have seen here in Florida since 2003 and 1989!”
Most auroras are green, yet when auroras spread to low latitudes, the sightings are almost always red, explains Dr Tony Phillips of spaceweather.com. Ordinary green auroras come from oxygen atoms some 150km above Earth’s surface. Red auroras are also caused by oxygen, but much higher up, between 150km and 500km.
This below image, shot the same night by Dean Cosgrove of Curtis, Nebraska, illustrates the red-on-green altitude structure. From far-south locales such as Florida, the greens are eclipsed by the northern horizon, leaving the higher reds to dominate.
Auroras from last week’s unexpected storm sank into America’s lower latitudes, sightings were noted in New Mexico (+32.8N), North Carolina (+36.5N), Missouri (+40.2N), Virginia (+38.7N), Colorado (+40.4N), , Nebraska (+41N) and North Carolina (+36.2N), and California (+39.7N). In fact, more than half of all U.S. states were in range of the display.
“For about 30 minutes we watched as auroras danced and simmered in the sky above Yellowstone National Park,” said Michael Underwood, who photographed the stunning light show from the Mammoth Hot Springs at latitude +45 degrees:
STEVE
Not every illumination in the sky was the aurora borealis. There was also STEVE (Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement).
Alan Birdsell photographed the phenomenon from Spokane, Washington:
“This was the first time I have seen a severe geomagnetic storm here in Spokane,” said Birdsell. “It was all a very profound and surreal experience.”
STEVE is not the same as auroras. The phenomenon is caused by hot 3,000 C (5,400 F) ribbons of gas flowing through Earth’s magnetosphere at speeds exceeding 6 km/s (13,000 mph), but, similarly to auroras, appear during strong geomagnetic storms.
On March 23, STEVE was spotted over some unusual locales, including South Dakota, Washington State, Idaho, Montana, and Scotland, following a sudden shift in the magnetic fields around Earth (the BsubZ tipped south).
As again explained by Dr Phillips, south-pointing magnetic fields opened a crack in our planet’s magnetosphere: “Earth’s ‘shields were down’ for almost 24 hours, allowing solar wind to penetrate and the storm to build to category G4,” he writes.
Nighttime shinings weren’t confined to the U.S., of course, or even the Northern Hemisphere. Naked eye auroras were dancing about the skies above Australia and New Zealand, too, known here as ‘aurora australis’ or ‘Southern Lights’.
Note the fantastic colors captured in the below video, which was shot in Franklin, Tasmania on March 23:
And here’s footage from New Zealand:
Signs of the times.
For more:
Cold Records Continue To Fall Across U.S.
The U.S.–and indeed much of Canada–is struggling to shake off winter 2022-23 with the West, in particular, remaining firmly within its icy grip.
A myriad more low temperature records were felled over the past 24-hours:
And looking ahead, we can expected a host more to be toppled–in some case slain–as additional rounds of polar cold descend:
Likewise, the snow will also continue to prove unrelenting for many, even well into April:
Europe Set For Spring Freeze
Weather models are doubling down on Europe’s potentially crop-wrecking outbreak of Arctic air.
Due first is a little taster, due to hit this week (see below). Note the exceptional chill in Scandinavia. Temperatures here will rival the record-breaking lows posted over the weekend, such as Finland’s -37.5C (-35.5F) — the latest-ever date for such a low reading.
Then next week, even as the calendar reads April, this is what Europe has in store; that is, something of a return to winter with widespread temperature anomalies of -14C below the norm and heavy snow:
To stave off the unseasonable freeze–and as also seen increasingly in recent years–we can expect mitigating measures to be implemented across the continent’s vineyards and orchards, such as the infamous ‘frost fires’:
Australia’s Polar Outbreak
Australia has been no stranger to anomalous, record-breaking cold in recent years, as documented here. And it looks like that trend will continue into autumn 2023.
Before March is through, the southern half of the country is forecast temperature anomalies of some 16C below the seasonal norm, particularly in the west:
The eyeing further ahead, the real fun is currently forecast to hit early April.
Latest GFS runs foresee a powerful mass of Antarctic air sweeping the majority of the Aussie continent commencing April 5:
This system could even bring early-season snow to the country’s higher elevations.
Stay tuned for updates.
I appreciate you wading through the new adverts peppering the site. The ads are intrusive and annoying, but they help me out a lot. And we all know, they won’t be here for long. Soon enough, Big Brother will catch up with me and remove them, once again. Cap.
G’day Cap,
We can do without the cold, though we appreciate your invaluable information and yes we will put up with the adverts and revert to donations to help out where ever possible.
The ads don’t bother me one bit. I’m glad they help you out financially.
7F here in Colorado Springs this morning with the sun shining. We were in the 20’s for most of yesterday, some 30F below normal. It’s been a very cold Spring. Today they say high of 50, still well below normal. Just updated to: ‘lucky to get into the 40’s’ this afternoon. I’m transplanting my seedlings into my greenhouse this afternoon and will have to bring them in the house for quite a few nights. Hoping to build a geothermal greenhouse this Fall.
The ads aren’t a problem.
Just keep the info coming.
Many Thanks
I have my garage full of seedlings and plants waiting to take them to my unheated hightunnel. but no chance. This week there will be many nights with below – 10 C temps. I can handle down to – 6 C with fleece and plastic but not colder. Maybe I should consider inflated double plastic and heater. Last summer we had 110 days above freezing but quinoa takes 120 days for full maturity. I woukd like to grow quinoa like you, Cap but in Finland it is rather challenging nowadays.
I can’t believe some of the temperatures in Finland of late.
You sure are up against it Juha — best of luck.
Cap
Thanks Cap, I am all good.. no prooblem. Two hightunnels with 300 m2 growing space would feed my family of four next coming cold years. I will try to grow quinoa in the tunnel (also outdoors) while it has perfect amino acids content. I will bake hundreds of various kinds of puffed, popped quinoa granola bars out of the harvest which will take us through the even more harash winters Excellent prepper snack not if but when shtf happens.. Sure I will grow other stuff, potatoes, tomatoes,carrots, onions, winter squash, some grains etc.. staple crops for storing.
I am curious what are you growing down there in Portugal, Cap?*I am looking forward to your youtube videos. Or make an article about it.. how to prepare for the coming cold era.
https://www.wildgardenseed.com/index.php?cPath=50
Maybe you can find an earlier maturing variety to grow? This place has 20 types of quinoa; I don’t know if they ship outside of the US though.
G’Day Cap.
Thanks for your great reports.
The STEVE, Could it be similar to what was seen in 1882.
Mysterious Beam of Light
The auroral display that accompanied the magnetic storm of November 1882 included a peculiar sight that was reported by observers in southern England, Belgium, and parts of France, including by expert scientists. Among them was John Rand Capron, an English amateur scientist, Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, and pioneer in auroral spectroscopy (Unknown, 1889). He published a detailed summary of what he and others saw on the night of 17 November 1882. “About 6 P.M., while the aurora was fitfully blazing in the north, north-east, and north-western sky, in the east there rose from the horizon a long beam of detached bright light, which, apparently lengthening as it advanced, crossed rapidly the southern horizon in front of or near the moon, and then sank in the west, shortening in length as it did so” (Capron, 1883, p. 319); see Figure 6.
Here is a link to the article
and the picture
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/2017SW001795
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/cms/asset/9dbda64e-7abc-46ad-9d13-3ed26c3be6b8/swe20548-fig-0006-m.jpg.
The description and picture looks like a similar thing, to STEVE, although they described it as pearly white.
“Capron continues: “The light emitted from it was described by one observer as of a glowing pearly white; and the general effect of this huge shining mass sailing majestically across the sky, even upon those accustomed to kindred phenomena, was at least one of wonder and surprise, while in the less experienced in such matters it created a feeling of absolute awe. Indeed to such an extent in some instances did this latter emotion prevail, that two labourers in my neighbourhood, who separately witnessed it, thought ‘that surely the world was coming to an end.’”
Cheers
Peter VK4KHP
Thank you KJ. I have this saponine free variety already germinating under the grow lights
https://www.vreeken.nl/222605-quinoa-vikinga
This should be good to grow in Scandinavia.
There seems to be varieties which .are grown in Canada which might work for us as well. We’ll find out.
If it helps you and slpreading the truth, send all the ads u want! Lol
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-65120327
so sad, that people dont think about cause and effect.