2024 was a relatively mild year weather-wise, but featured several notable events, including frequent displays of the northern lights (aurora borealis). Photographers in western Washington captured spectacular hues of pink, purple, and green illuminating the night sky. Space scientists attribute this phenomenon to geomagnetic storms caused by coronal mass ejections (CMEs) from the sun.
2024 was a pretty quiet year weather-wise, with many KOMO News viewers saying it one of those mild years they remembered from their childhoods.
The CMEs pull away from the sun and hurl into space. The size, speed, and strength of a CME can vary greatly. CMEs typically arrive at Earth in three to five days, but the fastest have been found to reach our planet in as little as 15 to 18 hours! In the severe Geomagnetic storm that occurred in May of 2024, SWPC’s planetary K-index showed that the Kp index reached between 8 and 9 in the early morning hours of May 11.
However, geomagnetic storms aren’t often strong enough such that the Northern Lights are visible all throughout the United States. The G5 level storm in 2024 resulted in an aurora observed as far south as California and Florida.The summer of 2024 brought record-breaking heat to western Washington, with temperatures soaring into the low 90s and beyond. The most intense heat wave occurred from July 4 through July 8, setting new high-temperature records across the region.
To combat the extreme heat, the Seattle Department of Transportation took measures to cool down drawbridges by hosing them down, preventing steel parts from expanding and jamming. A video shared by the city on social media showed similar efforts during a previous heat wave. As the deep low approached, it acted like a giant “vacuum in the sky,” pulling air into its center at an increasing pace. Much higher pressure was in place in Eastern Washington, and the pressure gradient between the two forced easterly winds to pick up from the Columbia Basin and blow out to sea.
Seeing how the November 2024 storm dropped a whopping 66 millibars in only 24 hours, it certainly was worthy of the “bomb cyclone” moniker.2024 was the year of a repeating promise: La Nina. cross the country, it was expected to form early in the year and enhance hurricane activity during summer of 2024 for the Atlantic. While numerous strong hurricanes developed, La Nina had not.
Northern Lights Aurora Borealis Geomagnetic Storm Coronal Mass Ejection Solar Storm
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