Rare Aurora in Iowa

One of the most spectacular natural show in the sky that has captivated humans for thousands of years is the northern lights or also called aurora borealis. Aurora is a mystical name that means “dawn” in Latin, while borealis means “northerly,” thus a northerly light of dawn.

Aurora borealis are beautiful dancing ribbons of light that can be green, pink, dark red, blue, purple and even yellow. But for all its beauty, this spectacular light show is a rather violent event. Let me explain the science behind this magnificent phenomenon a little bit.

The sun produced charged particles (electrons and protons) into space which is known as solar wind. The Earth’s magnetic field forms an invisible shield that protects us and redirects the solar wind towards Earth’s poles. The magnetic field lines can be dragged and stretched and when they snap back like an elastic band, this can launched the charged particles towards the Earth’s surface which then collide with gases in our upper atmosphere. The collision produce billions of tiny flashes that fill the sky with colorful light – the aurora borealis.

It has been my dream, and in fact it is in my bucket list, to see the northern lights. But in order to see the northern lights you need this “big three things” to line up in your favor.

First, the location to view it. Remember how our Earth’s magnetic fields redirecting the solar winds towards the poles, thus the best places to see the aurora borealis are the Nordic countries of Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Finland, which lie within or near the Arctic Circle. You could also look for them in Russia, Alaska and Canada’s northwest territories. This geographic location is known as the auroral oval.

Second, you need dark nights. Therefore, the best time to see these lights is during winter, from October to March, that is when the night time is quite long in the Northern Hemisphere. For example, in Northern Norway, nights can last for 20 hours and there’s even weeks without seeing the sun during winter. But those very cold and dark conditions may be the optimal settings to see the northern lights.

The third condition that needed to be satisfied to see the northern lights is a clear sky. It does not matter if you are in the North Pole, and it is dark all the time, but if the sky is not clear and there’s a lot of cloud cover, you cannot see this glorious display of lights.

To increase our chances to see the northern lights in our lifetime, my wife and I have even considered making a trip to Alaska, or better yet, Iceland during winter time. But that takes a good deal of planning (not to mention expense), and courage (because I’m afraid of the cold, remember I’m a Filipino and grew up in a tropical country), and lastly a lot of luck, as it is not a guarantee that you can always have a clear sky even if you are in the right geographic location.

However (a big however), when good fortunes align, northern lights can be seen right here in Iowa. Iowa is not a very northerly location in America, but once in a rare while, it has been reported that the northern lights were witnessed here. I have been living in Iowa for 20 years and the only northern lights I have seen is the Northern Lights Pizza, a popular pizza company here!

Until last month.

May 10 and 11, 2024, Iowa sky glowed with the dazzling aurora borealis. Come to think of it, it was not winter, but rather it was spring and even close to summer when it happened. Here are some photos of the rare aurora in Iowa.

Quite impressive, right? Except that I missed all of these! I was in the Philippines when it happened. Darn!

Thus seeing the northern lights remains an item in my bucket list.

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(*photos were taken and sent to me by my son and some other friends who told me what I missed)