The Northern Lights Just Lit Up Ski Resorts as Far South as New Mexico
On Tuesday night, ski resorts at least as far south as New Mexico enjoyed a rare treat, the northern lights, with mountains throughout ski country sharing photos from the atmospheric performance.
At New Mexico’s Angel Fire ski resort, lift director Tucker Cottam caught photos of the astral show as it danced above the new Rakes Rider lift.
Angel Fire, in a social media post, wrote, “Moments like these remind us why this mountain is more than just a place to ski.”
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The northern lights, of course, don’t often appear over New Mexico. Typically, the aurora borealis, which happens when particles from the sun collide with the Earth’s magnetic field, can only be spotted further north in places like Alaska or Norway.
But on Tuesday, there were two coronal mass ejections, also known as CMEs. These expulsions of plasma and magnetic fields are associated with large geomagnetic storms that, depending on their severity, can disrupt spacecraft and impact electrical systems on Earth. The arrival of the northern lights is a pleasant side effect.
That party isn’t quite over yet. NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center expects another G4-level or higher geomagnetic storm this week. On the scale NOAA uses to categorize these storms, G4 is the second-highest level. Wednesday night, then, may produce more opportunities to view the northern lights in states across the U.S.
To have a shot at seeing them, NOAA recommends finding a dark place away from city lights. The hours between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. are when it’s usually the easiest to spot the northern lights.
If Tuesday night saw the only geomagnetic blast this week, though, skiers likely wouldn’t be too disappointed. Alongside Angel Fire, the northern lights stopped at Snowbird, Arapahoe Basin, and Beaver Creek, to name only a few.
You could, if you wanted, think of it as a celebration of the coming ski season, which has already arrived at numerous ski resorts across North America. Just this week, Sunday River, Maine, and Killington, Vermont, welcomed their first skiers.
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