That said, the NOAA's forecast was (and continues to be) plagued by one apparent small blind spot: Contrary to the agency's guess that Alabama would be as far south as visibility went, plenty of Floridians reported seeing the Northern Lights in the Sunshine State last night.
Sometimes you're the windshield. Sometimes you're the bug. And sometimes it's none of the above.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has issued a severe geomagnetic storm warning for a large swath of the United States. The NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) has recorded intense geomagnetic activity on the Sun since midweek: solar flares, a handful of which appeared to be headed our way.
Friday's forecast constituted the first "Severe" solar flare warning the NOAA has issued since 2005.
As the SWPC will tell you, potential impacts from these events range from irregularities in the electrical grid and low-Earth orbit satellites to GPS glitches.
And, on the bright side, Northern Lights might be visible "as far south as Alabama and Northern California."
Translation: not Florida.
