Strong solar flare could bring northern lights as far south as Alabama

The Milky Way and northern lights are seen together as the aurora makes a rare appearance in California’s Eastern Sierra mountains on Tuesday south-west of Mammoth Lakes. Photograph: David McNew/Getty Images

A “severe” geomagnetic storm and auroral displays of the northern lights far into the south of the US could occur on Thursday after charged solar particles slammed into Earth, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s space weather prediction center has warned.

The center alerted to the approach of an enormous mass of charged solar particles spewing from the sun, later reporting that the coronal mass ejection hit Earth at 11.15am ET on Thursday. A “severe” G4-class geomagnetic storm remained likely.