ST. LOUIS — A rare weather event is about to envelop the northern half of the United States starting Friday, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Weather Prediction Center.
The storm may bring "spectacular displays" of northern lights, or aurora borealis, as far south as the St. Louis area, meteorologists said.
The center issued a Severe (G4) Geomagnetic Storm Watch Friday morning. A watch issued at the "severe" level is very rare, with the last such watch issued in 2005. The watch was issued after several moderate to strong solar flares were produced by a large sunspot cluster since Wednesday, meteorologists said.
"A coronal mass ejection (CME) is an eruption of solar material," the center said on its website. "When they arrive at Earth, a geomagnetic storm can result ... The aurora may become visible over much of the northern half of the country, and maybe as far south as Alabama to northern California."
Along with the northern lights, the storm may cause disruptions in communications, the electric power grid, navigation, radio, and satellite operations, meteorologists said.
"Only three Severe geomagnetic storms have been observed during this solar cycle which began in December 2019," the center said. "The last G5 (Extreme) was the Halloween Storms in October 2003. That G5 resulted in power outages in Sweden and damaged power transformers in South Africa."
This is a developing situation. This article will be updated with the latest information as it is released.
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