Largest solar storm in seven years lights up skies above cloudy Fairbanks

Keep an eye on European skies over the next couple of days. Aurora pictures will pour in as the sun pelts the Earth with the largest solar storm in seven years.

The aurora’s been active for a few days now. Unfortunately, it’s been quite cloudy in Fairbanks. Normally, we see the aurora much more commonly than places like Southern England, but this time they’ve one-upped us in opportunity thanks to the weather. Southern England hasn’t experienced aurorae since 2003, according to this BBC video.

Northern Norway, on the other hand, often comes out with spectacular aurora photographs for Alaskans to drool over when it snows. Helge Mortensen on Vimeo took this timelapse video last weekend in Norway:

Activity can only get better as the peak of the storm hits the Earth this morning and continues into the evening.

Hopefully celestial spectacles become more common this year as the sun climbs out of an uncharacteristically-long lull in activity. Over at the the Geophysical Institute’s Aurora Forecast page, you can keep tabs on short and long-term auroral activity outlooks.

Here’s hoping that conditions clear up so that Alaska’s skies, too, may have a chance to shine.