The Northern Lights were already visible over Austria on New Year’s Eve and captured by webcams. The rare natural spectacle continued on Wednesday evening – also over Carinthia and Styria. Experts also predict a promising forecast for 2025.
On New Year’s Eve from Tuesday to Wednesday and on New Year’s Eve, the Northern Lights were visible again over Austria. According to the weather service GeoSphere Austria, a solar storm has hit Earth and caused an intense geomagnetic storm. This makes it the fourth strongest of the current solar cycle, according to a report on news platform X.
Impressive photos from Carinthia and Styria
The next night, colorful lights also created a natural spectacle in the Austrian sky. The weather conditions also facilitated the observations. Apart from local areas of fog in the lowlands to the east and south, skies will remain partly cloudy in many regions. The first images of the Northern Lights were captured in the early evening of January 1, approximately north of Hartberg in Styria:
Up to five strong solar storms are expected in 2025
Experts also predict a good forecast for the Northern Lights in 2025. The reason for this is the continued high solar activity, as the head of the Austrian space weather office of GeoSphere Austria in Graz, Christian Möstl, explained. He expects three to five strong solar storms with potential for northern lights in Austria.
Since the 18th century, solar activity has been measured by the number of sunspots and sunspot groups, from which the so-called ‘relative number of sunspots’ is calculated. This reaches a maximum approximately every eleven years; in 2024/25 our central star will be at the maximum of solar cycle number 25.
About 50 solar storms hit Earth last year – the most in the past two decades. “In our experience, about ten percent of these have Northern Lights potential at southern latitudes, such as Austria,” says Möstl. In fact, four strong geomagnetic storms were recorded in 2024.
Strongest solar storm in May 2023
On the night of May 11, 2023, the strongest solar storm since 2003 produced spectacular northern lights that were visible even in the brightly lit city of Vienna. “This was probably the best Northern Lights event ever photographed, mainly thanks to smartphones that capture colors better than the eye sees them,” Möstl explains. The light phenomena caused by a solar storm were also visible in western Austria on October 11, but only to a lesser extent due to the weather conditions.
On New Year’s Eve, the Northern Lights were particularly visible in Bad Kleinkirchheim in Carinthia around 6:30 PM:
To make the Northern Lights visible at our latitudes, several factors must come together: in addition to solar activity, clear weather, low cloud cover and a moon that is not too bright play a crucial role. The season and time of the phenomenon are also important: it must be dark enough and people must still be awake to witness the rare spectacle.
Fewer northern lights expected after 2025
Möstl expects fewer solar storms in the years after 2025. However, these would tend to produce somewhat stronger effects as they move across Earth’s magnetic field in the waning phase of the solar cycle. “So there are still chances to see the sky dancing in Central Europe until 2027.”
Source: Krone
I am Wallace Jones, an experienced journalist. I specialize in writing for the world section of Today Times Live. With over a decade of experience, I have developed an eye for detail when it comes to reporting on local and global stories. My passion lies in uncovering the truth through my investigative skills and creating thought-provoking content that resonates with readers worldwide.
