The running joke on the internet this weekend was that anyone who had bought a plane ticket to the North Pole for the Northern Lights must have been smoking their heads off watching the Northern Lights peeking through the doors of homes in half of Europe this weekend.
Last Friday (and part of Saturday) the skies of Catalonia were covered with incredible lilac-colored aurora borealis whose photos filled the social networks, in a phenomenon which are occurring for the first time with such intensity since records have been kept, and have got everyone in an uproar with one question: will we be able to see them again?
Why were northern lights seen in Catalonia?
The northern lights “descended” from the North Pole to these latitudes due to an unusual high intensity solar geomagnetic storm. According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), a polar aurora is a luminous phenomenon called an “electrometeor”, which appears in the upper layers of the atmosphere following a geomagnetic storm, appearing in different forms of various visual patterns.
These patterns form near the magnetic poles, in regions known as “auroral ovals”, and during geomagnetic storms such as the one experienced this weekend, intensified by the peak of solar activity, these ovals temporarily expand, increasing the radius of occurrence of the northern lights and bringing them to lower latitudes.
Will aurora borealis be seen again in Catalonia?
Phenomena such as this weekend’s are due to a peak in solar activity, whose cycle will reach its maximum activity during this year and the next. This state facilitates the appearance of aurora borealis and intensifies their appearance.
This peak occurs approximately every 11 years, with 2003 being the last period of high solar activity. E n then, as now, electrical installations in countries such as Sweden and South Africa were damaged.
Therefore, it is to be expected that, although it is not possible to measure when due to the unpredictability of the storms, it will be possible to see similar aurora borealis in the coming months. This time, places like Prades, Berguedà, els Pallars or l’Anoia and other areas of the Pyrenees and the territory in general with little light pollution were the ideal places to enjoy them, so you know where to go when the next geomagnetic storm warning goes out.