A photo from the National Weather Service office in New Braunfels shows the northern lights on Thursday. Credit: X / NWS Austin/San Antonio

The skies across Texas Thursday night were set ablaze with the pink and purple hues of the northern lights as the sun sent out massive solar flares.

Usually, the northern lights – whose scientific name is the aurora borealis – are only visible in Iceland, Canada or other far-flung northern locations. However, due to stronger-than-usual solar activity on Thursday, people as far south as the Florida Keys had front-row seats to one of nature’s greatest shows.

Texans took to social media around 9 p.m. to share photos of the unusual astronomical event.

On social media platform X, user @RunningWithTots shared photos of a pinkish sky from her spot in Boerne.

Meanwhile, Del Rio resident Ivan Valdez’s photo of the northern lights from the U.S.-Mexico border was tweeted out by WOAI chief meteorologist Chris Suchan.

X user @dezureii also spotted the Aurora Borealis in San Antonio.

The National Weather Service’s San Antonio-Austin office confirmed that the northern lights were visible with the naked eye in New Braunfels shortly before 9:30 p.m. Thursday.

And the breathtaking photography didn’t end there.

Friday is expected to be another active day for solar flares, according to the NOAA/National Weather service forecast. However, tonight’s aurora borealis is likely to be confined to the Northern U.S. and Canada.

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This article appears in Sep 25 – Oct 15, 2024.

Michael Karlis is a multimedia journalist at the San Antonio Current, whose coverage in print and on social media focuses on local and state politics. He is a graduate of American University in Washington,...