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‘Extreme’ geomagnetic storms return Saturday promising encore of nationwide aurora

A historic geomagnetic storm that brought a spectacular display of the Northern Lights as far south as Florida Friday night shows no signs of slowing down with more aurora likely Saturday.

By Scott Sistek Source FOX Weather

Solar storm allowing wildspread aurora viewing

A historic geomagnetic storm that brought a spectacular display of the Northern Lights as far south as Florida and Texas on Friday night shows no signs of slowing down.

A historic geomagnetic storm that brought a spectacular display of the Northern Lights as far south as Florida and Texas on Friday night shows no signs of slowing down.

As a massive sunspot the width of 17 Earths continues to spew solar flares, geomagnetic storm activity reached Level 5 "extreme" conditions Friday evening. After a brief return to level 3 and 4 conditions at times overnight, solar activity reenergized Saturday morning and storms have returned to those extreme Level 5 conditions, according to NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center.

Space weather forecasters now believe geomagnetic storms of varying intensity will persist through at least Sunday.

"The threat of additional strong flares and (Coronal Mass Ejections) will remain until the large and magnetically complex sunspot cluster (NOAA region 3664) rotates out of view over the next several days," the SWPC wrote in a Saturday morning update.

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Northern Lights from Seattle during an extreme geomagnetic storm on May 10, 2024. (NWS Seattle)

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Northern Lights from Mukilteo, Washington during an extreme geomagnetic storm on May 10, 2024. (Scott Sistek)

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Northern Lights from Reno, Nevada during an extreme geomagnetic storm on May 10, 2024. (NWS Reno)

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Northern Lights from Mukilteo, Washington during an extreme geomagnetic storm on May 10, 2024. (Scott Sistek)

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Northern Lights from Riverton, Wyoming during an extreme geomagnetic storm on May 10, 2024. (NWS Riverton)

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Northern Lights from Hastings, Nebraska during an extreme geomagnetic storm on May 10, 2024. (NWS Hastings)

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Northern Lights from Great Falls, Montana during an extreme geomagnetic storm on May 10, 2024. ( )

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Northern Lights from Missoula, Montana during an extreme geomagnetic storm on May 10, 2024. (NWS Missoula)

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View from Concord, N.C. (Jay Caceres)

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FOX Weather Storm Tracker Mark Sudduth caught a stunning view of the aurora over South Carolina while in a plane. (Mark Sudduth)

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Clear skies led the Northern Lights to be visible in Texas and New Mexico (@NWSElPaso)

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Fort Lauderdale Northern Lights (Luke Culver)

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Northern lights or aurora borealis illuminate the night sky over a camper's tent north of San Francisco in Middletown, California on May 11, 2024. The most powerful solar storm in more than two decades struck Earth, triggering spectacular celestial light shows from Tasmania to Britain -- and threatening possible disruptions to satellites and power grids as it persists into the weekend. (Photo by JOSH EDELSON / AFP) (Photo by JOSH EDELSON/AFP via Getty Images) ( )

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Northern Lights from Great Falls, Montana during an extreme geomagnetic storm on May 10, 2024. (NWS Great Falls, Montana)

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Northern Lights from Shreveport, Louisiana during an extreme geomagnetic storm on May 10, 2024. (NWS Shreveport)

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Forecasters at the NWS office in Calera, AL saw the aurora and the space station. (@NWSBirmingham)

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10 May 2024, Baden-Württemberg, Freiburg: Northern lights appear over the Dreisamtal valley in the Black Forest near Freiburg. (Photo by Valentin Gensch/picture alliance via Getty Images)

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A brilliant display of the Aurora Australis (aka the "Southern Lights") over New Zealand as a severe geomagnetic storm reaches Earth on May 10, 2024.  (@AndrewDickson13 via X)

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A brilliant display of the Aurora Australis (aka the "Southern Lights") over New Zealand as a severe geomagnetic storm reaches Earth on May 10, 2024.  (@AndrewDickson13 via X)

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A brilliant display of the Aurora Australis (aka the "Southern Lights") over New Zealand as a severe geomagnetic storm reaches Earth on May 10, 2024.  (@AndrewDickson13 via X)

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10 May 2024, Brandenburg, Sieversdorf: Light green and violet-reddish auroras glow in the night sky in the Oder-Spree district of East Brandenburg. The northern lights (aurora borealis) are produced by a cloud of electrically charged particles from a solar storm in the earth's atmosphere. (Photo by Patrick Pleul/picture alliance via Getty Images)

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Outside of the NWS office in Caribou, Maine. ( )

While that bodes well for a second round of nationwide aurora viewing Saturday night, it continues to strain electrical and satellite infrastructure. SWPC reports there have been reports of power grid irregularities and degradations to high frequency communications and GPS.

SpaceX's Starlink service warned on its website Saturday morning that it was experiencing "degraded service," though it didn't give further details. Yet SpaceX head Elon Musk had earlier posted on X that the Starlink satellites were under a lot of pressure due to the geomagnetic storm and were still holding up.

SWPC officials say those who manage vulnerable equipment have been briefed on the heightened solar activity.

"We have notified all of our infrastructure operators that we coordinate with, such as satellite operators, communication folks, and of course, the power grid here in North America (about the extreme solar event)," SWPC coordinator Shawn Dahl said Friday. "So they are able and prepared to take mitigation efforts as much as possible throughout this event if it should unfold to the levels that we currently are anticipating."

This Level 5 geomagnetic storm is the first to hit Earth since October 2003. That storm knocked out power in Sweden and damaged electrical transformers in South Africa.

Forecast again looks good for aurora hunting

Cloud Cover forecast for 1 a.m. CT on Sunday May 12, 2024. (FOX Weather)

The weather forecast for Saturday night is similar to Friday night's forecast. 

Skies will be mostly clear across the West and Pacific Northwest into most of the Plains and Great Lake. Parts of the Northeast and New England will have marginal conditions with clouds hanging around New York City.