Despite the fact that most of the states are located well below the zone of most activity near latitudes of 68 degrees, we get quite a number of Aurora Borealis sightings, even as far south as Arizona! Here is a partial list that I culled from back issues of Sky and Telescope magazine:
Date....................Sighted from................ Issue Date August 1, 1959 Rochester, New York November 1959 August 19-20, 1963 Fargo, North Dakota October, 1963 July 8, 1966 Lake Placid, New York December, 1966 September 3, 1966 Saint Paul, Minnesota December, 1966 September 29, 1969 Pompton Planes, New Jersey December, 1969 October 17, 1970 Birmingham, Ohio December, 1970 June 17-18, 1972 Over the Great Lakes August, 1972 July 5-6, 1974 Toronto, Canada October, 1974 May 2-3, 1976 Bucyrus, Kansas September, 1976 August 28, 1978 Walla Walla, Washington December, 1978 April 10, 1981 Tucson, Arizona July, 1981After 1981, Sky and Telescope stopped reporting aurora on a regular basis! You can see that about every 2-3 years we get a good show 'down here'!! During the current solar activity cycle (1996 - 2004), we have had quite a few major aurora. Here is a list of the major ones that would have been seen in the southern United States since 1958:
February 11, 1958 Canada-Europe-US radio outage July 8, 1958 Europe and US radio outage. IGY issues warning July 15, 1959 No news reports November 13, 1960 Global shortwave radio disruption (NYT) May 25, 1967 No news reports August 4, 1972 Cable disruption - power grid problems February 8, 1986 No news reports March 13, 1989 Quebec blackout May 4, 1998 No news reports April 7, 2000 Great Aurora - No news reports July 15, 2000 Bastille Day Storm - satellite, power problems March 31, 2001 Great Aurora - No news reports November 6, 2001 Great Aurora - ISS astronauts take cover October 29-30, 2003 Great Aurora - Satellite anomalies November 20, 2003 Great Aurora - Greece, Europe, N. America
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