OH, WHAT A NIGHT!

EDITOR'S NOTE: On the evening of May 10, at 3:54 p.m. Arizona time, the National Weather Service observed conditions resulting from an extreme geomagnetic storm in outer space, in which electrons from space began flowing down Earth's magnetic field, where they eventually collided with atoms and molecules in our upper atmosphere. Those collisions produced an aurora (streamers or arches of light) known as the northern lights - the scientific term is aurora borealis. (In the Southern Hemisphere, the southern lights are known as aurora australis.) The geomagnetic storm that night reached a level of G5, or 5 out of 5 in intensity. The last time a solar storm of that magnitude reached Earth, and subsequently Arizona, was on Halloween in 2003. Lucky for us, several of our regular photographers, along with a few others who tagged us on Instagram, had their cameras, light meters and tripods sitting by their front doors.