a powerful solar storm It produced a spectacular sky light show around the world overnight, but appears to have caused only minor disruptions to power grids, communications and satellite positioning systems.
![The Northern Lights blaze over a farmhouse in Brunswick, Maine, late Friday, May 10, 2024.](https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/663f2f002600003300b34210.jpeg?cache=uWMKomMoTn&ops=scalefit_720_noupscale)
AP Photo/Robert F. Bucati
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said extreme geomagnetic storm conditions continued Saturday, with preliminary reports of power grid anomalies and degradation of radio frequency communications and the Global Positioning System.
However, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said as of early Saturday, no FEMA regions had reported significant impacts from the storm.
![The Northern Lights shine on the horizon at Anthony Gormley's Another Place in Crosby Beach, Liverpool, Merseyside.](https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/663f78612600003300b3421b.jpeg?ops=scalefit_720_noupscale)
![The Northern Lights shine on the horizon at Anthony Gormley's Another Place in Crosby Beach, Liverpool, Merseyside.](https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/663f78612600003300b3421b.jpeg?ops=scalefit_720_noupscale)
Peter Byrne/PA Image (via Getty Images)
NOAA predicts the strong flares will continue through at least Sunday, and a spokesperson said in an email that NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center is well prepared for the storm.
On Saturday morning, SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet service announced on its website that service was degraded and its team was investigating. CEO Elon Musk wrote in X overnight that the company's satellites are „under tremendous pressure, but are holding up so far.“
![The aurora borealis is visible over Lake Berryessa, California, near midnight on Saturday, November 11, 2024.](https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/663f77f02600003300b3421a.jpeg?ops=scalefit_720_noupscale)
![The aurora borealis is visible over Lake Berryessa, California, near midnight on Saturday, November 11, 2024.](https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/663f77f02600003300b3421a.jpeg?ops=scalefit_720_noupscale)
San Francisco Chronicle/Hearst Newspapers (via Getty Images) via Getty Images
Vivid shades of purple, green, yellow and pink aurora Sightings have been reported around the world, including in Germany, Switzerland, London, Prague, and Barcelona.
In the United States, Friday night's solar storm moved the light farther south than usual. People in Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, and other Midwestern states were able to snap photos of color along the horizon.
![In this long-exposure photo, a car passes by and lights up an aspen tree as the aurora borealis shines in the sky over the village of Dierens, Switzerland, early Saturday morning, May 11, 2024.](https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/663f2f7a2400001d00add3f4.jpg?ops=scalefit_720_noupscale)
![In this long-exposure photo, a car passes by and lights up an aspen tree as the aurora borealis shines in the sky over the village of Dierens, Switzerland, early Saturday morning, May 11, 2024.](https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/663f2f7a2400001d00add3f4.jpg?ops=scalefit_720_noupscale)
Laurent Guillieron/Keystone, via AP
NOAA said the solar storm will continue through the weekend, giving many people another chance to see the northern lights Saturday night.
Government agencies issued a rare severe geomagnetic storm warning Friday afternoon as the sun's blast reached Earth several hours earlier than expected.
NOAA warned FEMA as well as orbiting power plants and spacecraft operators to take precautions.
![Aurora on Mt. Mitchell, North Carolina, USA, May 10, 2024.](https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/663f7a562600003200b3421c.jpeg?ops=scalefit_720_noupscale)
![Aurora on Mt. Mitchell, North Carolina, USA, May 10, 2024.](https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/663f7a562600003200b3421c.jpeg?ops=scalefit_720_noupscale)
Peter Zai/Anadolu via Getty Images
„For most people on Earth, there's no need to do anything,“ says Rob Steenberg, a scientist at NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center.
„It's really a gift from space weather, the aurora borealis,“ Steenberg said. He and his colleagues said the best views of the aurora borealis may come from cell phone cameras, which are better at capturing light than the naked eye.
When you take a photo of the sky, „you might actually find a nice little reward in there,“ says Mike Betwee, the prediction center's operations director.
In 1859, the most intense solar storm in recorded history occurred, likely producing aurora borealis in Central America and even Hawaii.
NOAA space weather forecaster Sean Dahl told reporters that the storm poses a risk to the power grid's high-voltage power lines, not the power lines in your home. Satellites may also be affected, potentially disrupting navigation and communication services on Earth.
For example, an extreme geomagnetic storm in 2003 caused power outages in Sweden and damaged transformers in South Africa.
![Aurora captured on May 11, 2024 in Manning Park, British Columbia, Canada. (Photo by Andrew Chin/Getty Images)](https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/663f7b6b2600003200b3421d.jpeg?ops=scalefit_720_noupscale)
![Aurora captured on May 11, 2024 in Manning Park, British Columbia, Canada. (Photo by Andrew Chin/Getty Images)](https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/663f7b6b2600003200b3421d.jpeg?ops=scalefit_720_noupscale)
Andrew Chin (via Getty Images)
Even after the storm has passed, signals between GPS satellites and ground receivers can become scrambled or lost, according to NOAA. However, Steenberg noted that with so many navigation satellites, any outage should not last long.
Since Wednesday, the sun has unleashed a strong solar flare that has triggered at least seven bursts of plasma. Each eruption, known as a coronal mass ejection, can contain billions of tons of plasma and magnetic fields from the Sun's outer atmosphere, or corona.
The flare appears to be associated with a sunspot 16 times the diameter of Earth, NOAA said. This is all part of the increased solar activity as the Sun approaches the peak of her 11-year cycle.
Dan reported from Cape Canaveral, Florida, Krisher from Detroit and Funk from Omaha, Nebraska.