THUNDER BAY — As they approach the peak of their 11-year cycle, the northern lights are becoming increasingly spectacular.
On Sunday night, they put on a particularly vivid show that included a lot of red.
While the most common aurora colour is green, red is seen less often, and is usually connected to an increase in solar activity.
"The reds are very rare. They only show in stronger storms, and a lot of people can actually see them by eye. That's amazing," said local photo enthusiast Al Stecky, who frequently posts pictures to the Thunder Bay Starchasers Facebook group.
Stecky noted that "Some people were watching last night, and said the whole sky turned red for them."
A phenomenal display between Oct. 4 and 6 had been forecast by experts in the wake of two solar flares that erupted on the sun last week, but he said the weekend started out as a disappointment.
"We usually get a prediction from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the US a couple of days ahead, and they predicted this weekend was just going to be epic, and you're going to see them all over the place. As usual – we call it the media kiss of death – nothing happened. And then on Sunday night we got the tail end of one."
Stecky said the most recent solar flare was the strongest that's been observed in the past 20 or 30 years.
"It's such a big, big universe, and we're so far away from the sun. The solar storms basically come out with ripples and waves. So if we get caught between a wave, we miss the storm. If we get the wave right on us, we get the storm. So it's a hit-or-miss proposition, but hopefully they'll get better."