One of the strongest solar storms in recent history hit Earth and resulted in a colorful heavenly show for much of the United States on Friday night as the northern lights were visible as far south as Florida and Texas.
The unusually powerful geomagnetic storm erupted from a sunspot cluster, which caused the Space Weather Prediction Center to classify it as a G5, or “extreme” storm,” which is the highest level, according to USA Today. The last G5 storm to hit Earth was in 2003.
The Space Weather Prediction Center said in a statement on Saturday morning that the geomagnetic storm resulted in “reports of power grid irregularities and degradation to high-frequency communications and GPS.” The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said the sun flares appear to be associated with a sunspot that is 16 times the diameter of Earth, the Associated Press reported.
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