As the east coast was soaking wet (hehe), folks in the southern parts of Australia were able to catch a glimpse of the aurora australis. A sight that some people can only dream about.
On Saturday, skies in the southern regions of the country transformed into what can be described as a Microsoft computer’s lock screen.
The phenomenon, known as aurora australis which is caused by geomagnetic storms, produced hues of pink, blue, green and purple in the sky.
Naturally, folks who were greeted by the spectacular sight — punters in Melbourne, Tassie, South Australia, Perth, parts of northern NSW and southern Queensland — ran straight to social media with all their aurora australis pics.
Prior to nature’s light show, the Burea of Meteorology (BoM) issued a warning for a G4 (severe) geomagnetic storm which was set to arrive on Earth at Friday, 8pm and finish at 6 on Sunday.
“The G-scale is a measure of global geomagnetic activity, which refers to fluctuations in Earth’s magnetic field across the globe. The G-scale ranges from G1 (minor) to G5 (extreme),” BoM wrote.
“The intensity of geomagnetic storms in Australia is usually lower than the planetary average.”
Unfortunately for Sydneysiders, they were lashed with heavy rain and clouds. Heck, even my own suburb plunged into darkness as we copped a blackout. Felt like we were in the bloody Upside Down!
Those who missed out on the phenomenon were able to seek comfort and memes in their FOMO.
For those hoping to catch the tiniest glimpse of the lights IRL, you might be in luck.
Speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald, Professor Andrew Cole of the University of Tasmania said the “sun was at its most active phase in a decade”, meaning that more light shows from nature could show up later on.
“You can never actually say the moment at which the aurora is going to stop and start, but it’s more likely [to happen] now than it has been in quite some time,” he told the publication.
“It could maintain its activity for the rest of this year … this is a roughly a ‘once every couple of decades’ kind of event.”
The last time Australia received this kinda of phenomenon was back in 2003 when we were hit with a G5 storm.
On the bright side, at least we can see pretty lights in a couple of days at Vivid Sydney. Lol.
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