‘Extreme’ geomagnetic storm lights up the Montana sky

(Missoula Current) One of the strongest geomagnetic storms in 20 years lit up the Missoula sky on Friday night, offering viewers what some space physicists have described as a once-in-a-lifetime viewing opportunity.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said “extreme G5” conditions had been observed on Friday night. They're likely to persist throughout the weekend “as several additional Earth-directed Coronal Mass Ejections are in transit.”

The last extreme G5 event occurred with the Halloween storms in October 2003. That storm caused power outages in Sweden and damaged transformers as far south as South Africa, according to NOAA.

“It's really moving. You're talking a million miles an hour,” Mathew Owens, professor of space physics at the University of Reading told CNN regarding Friday's storm. “But it's a long way from the sun, so they take two or three days to get here.”

According to NOAA, the source of current storm is resulting from a “complex sunspot cluster” that is 17 times the diameter of Earth. Additional activity from the region of the Sun is still expected, NOAA added.

While no technological or power issues have yet been reported in Montana, such storms can wreak havoc on critical infrastructure.

“Widespread voltage control problems and protective system problems can occur," NOAA said regarding G5 storms. "Some grid systems may experience complete collapse or blackouts. Transformers may experience damage."

At Blue Mountain in Missoula, the parking lot filled deep into the night as viewers came to catch a view of the sky. The show dazzled those who watched, and with little more than a crescent moon low above the horizon, the sky was otherwise black, less for the northern lights that danced directly overhead and stretched from horizon to horizon.