The northern lights, also known as aurora borealis, are typically only visible in places like Canada and Alaska.
In Wyoming, it’s fairly rare, said Gerri Swanson, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s local forecast office in Riverton — it might happen a couple times a winter.
So what’s going on?
Simply put, a solar flare is disturbing Earth’s magnetic field. And when that happens, it can cause aurora borealis in places where you wouldn’t ordinarily see them.
Meteorologists use what’s called the “Kp index” — which runs on a scale from 1 to 10 — to measure geomagnetic activity.
Thursday night’s cleared six globally. David Kerr, a Casper resident and professional photographer, was there to document what it looked like from central Wyoming.
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Kerr, his dad and younger sister, Anjela, bundled up and drove out to a spot about 20 miles north of Casper, near Midwest.
The family was out there for about an hour, he said. They snacked on jerky and Cheez-Its as they watched watched green waves around the horizon.
And for about 10 or 15 minutes, they also saw Steve.
A meteorological event called a “Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement,” that is. It typically looks like a purple or green bow in the sky, and is made of a concentrated current of plasma traveling through the atmosphere.
Kerr used a tripod and a mirrorless camera set to long exposure to get photos of the sky.
He said his dad, who’s pushing 60, has lived in Casper his whole life and never seen aurora borealis in the state that bright.
“All I can think about is getting back out there and seeing some more,” Kerr said.
The National Weather Service has issued a severe geomagnetic storm warning through Saturday. Such storms can mess with long-range radio, interfere with satellites, cause voltage surges in power grids and indirectly expose high-altitude pilots and astronauts to radiation, according to the United States Geological Survey’s website.
You can keep tabs on the National Weather Service’s aurora forecast on the Space Weather Prediction Center’s website, swpc.noaa.gov.