KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Stargazers across East Tennessee were treated to a "potentially historic event" Friday night — the Northern Lights. Hues of pink and green filled the night sky, in a phenomenon otherwise known as the Aurora Borealis.
Occasionally, the sun "burps" out enough plasma to create a powerful geomagnetic storm that can bring the Northern Lights to the South. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Friday that its space weather forecasters saw at least seven coronal mass ejections from the sun, which they said could bring a potentially "severe" geomagnetic storm to Earth that could last through Sunday.
NOAA said the solar storm could make the aurora visible as far south as Alabama. Friday night, people from across East Tennessee shared photos of the spectacle with WBIR.
You can see some of those photos below.
The Northern Lights move south to East Tennessee
"This is an unusual and potentially historic event," Clint Wallace, the director of NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center, said.
The last time the aurora could be seen in Tennessee was in Nov. 2004 and Jan. 2005 after bursts of solar plasma caused similarly severe solar storms. Most of East Tennessee appears to have missed the Jan. 2005 event because of a snowstorm, but the 2004 event that happened for three days beginning Nov. 7 could be seen here and as far south as Texas.
Below is archive video of the 2004 event, including video from Nashville and pictures from across Tennessee: