Co-Written by: Kierra Vaughan and Kaitlynn Schmurr
Most commonly found in Alaska, Northern Canada and the Scandinavian countries, the aurora borealis (Commonly referred to as the Northern Lights) made an appearance in Colorado Jan. 9-10; and they were sonically supercharged.
According to CBS News meteorologist Dave Aguilera, a huge solar flare erupted on the sun that came from a sunspot (picture an over magnetized sink hole). This is the first apparent solar flare in 2014. Solar particles came toward the Earth, and were predicted to reach the Colorado area at midnight last Thursday. People were able to witness the phenomenon around midnight on both Thursday and Friday. The reason that the solar flare was able to reach this far south was because it was approximately seven times the size of Earth. The reason it didn’t overtake the entire Earth in its wake is due to our protective magnetic field, which deflected the harmful rays of the storm and funneled gases in; which people view as the rare yet famous Northern Lights.
Some were able to view the spectacle from places far from the city lights and with no cloud cover. Unfortunately, cities in Larimer County were unable to see them due to weather, but most people who did witness the lights had access to clear skies in mountainous locations, like Horsetooth Reservoir, in Fort Collins, Colo.
This sort of instance in Colorado is rare but not unheard of, if you were unable to witness the lights like most of Larimer County because of the weather, there’s no doubt they’ll be back again someday.
