Northern Lights may be visible from Ireland today as US warns of 'severe geomagnetic storm'

An uncommonly powerful solar storm may occur in outer space Friday, officials have warned – the first in nearly 20 years if it comes to fruition, with the possibility of the Northern Lights being visible from Ireland.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in the US issued the Severe (G4) Geomagnetic Storm Watch late Thursday – the first such alert aired since 2005 when Earth was hit with the highest dose of radiation in a half-century.

This time around, the 'unusual event' could disrupt electronic devices like GPS and parts of power grids, the American agency said. These geomagnetic storms can also trigger spectacular displays of aurora on Earth, and the Northern Lights may be visible tonight and tomorrow night.

Large sunspot groups and strong solar flares led to the issuance of SWPC's first G4 Watch since 2005... pic.twitter.com/oi55cTPXhP

— NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center (@NWSSWPC) May 9, 2024

It said at least five "earth-directed coronal mass ejections" were observed and expected to arrive as early as today and to persist through until Sunday.

It also said several strong flares have been observed over the past few days and were associated with a large and magnetically complex sunspot cluster, which it says is 16 times the diameter of Earth.

Coronal mass ejections are explosions of plasma and magnetic fields from the sun and cause geomagnetic storms when they are directed at Earth.

In 2003, a G5 solar geomagnetic storm resulted in power outages in Sweden and damaged power transformers in South Africa.