Last night (March 23) Collingwood residents got a rare look at the northern lights, thanks to a magnetic storm that pushed the aurora borealis a little further south than usual.
According to forecasting on the Space Weather Canada website the sub-auroral region, which includes Ontario below James Bay, will be getting "active-to-stormy" magnetic field activity over the next 24 hours.
The green and purple lights in the night sky are the product of energized particles (called solar winds) from the sun slamming into the earth's upper atmosphere at about 70 million kilometres per hour and being blocked by the planet's magnetic field. Since the solar wind gets deflected to the earth's magnetic poles, the northern lights are typically more common in areas closer to the north or south poles.
If you took some photos of the northern lights in the Collingwood area last night and would like to share them, you can send them to [email protected] for a chance to have them included in this photo gallery.
