Streaks of green and pink light filled the sky Friday night, from one horizon to the other.
How could I go to bed?
“It’s hard to leave,” my sister and I agreed, and so we stood marveling at the massive spectacle from a lakeside park in northwest Wisconsin as night turned to morning.
Like so many other sky watchers at that moment, we had been losing track of time as we stretched our necks upward to witness the columns and swirls of light slowly brighten and fade, moving in a slow dance.
A few others stood in the tiny park near us, basking in the beauty, too. Forecasters had let the world know that the strongest solar storm in two decades was poised to send this spectacular display to an unusually wide swath of the planet.
As a longtime aurora fan, I had been skeptical; northern lights are elusive and such hype often doesn’t result in a show.
But as darkness worked its way west across the hemisphere and social media posts blew up with jaw-dropping images first from Europe and later from the East Coast, I grew more optimistic. Soon, people were cheering the northern lights as far south as Florida and in light-polluted cities including downtown Minneapolis.
In our corner of the planet, the glow typically appears small and low on the horizon. Often, it shows only in the wee hours of school nights. Clouds, city lights or even a full moon can obscure the view.
