Northern Lights on the August sky

I just had the weirdest experience... I spent the whole day in Helsinki with my friend shopping and came home quite late, then chatted on messenger, and about 20 minutes ago I went to make some noodles in the kitchen, because I was hungry. I watched out of the window and wondered how the clouds looked so strange. I went outside and noticed they were no clouds, they were Aurora Borealis. That's extremely rare at this time of the year, and this south of the country. I was thrilled! Still am. It's 00:20 AM here, the sky was full of faint greenish "lightnings", I have never seen so many of them!

Sorry, no photos, my camera isn't good enough and the Northern Lights weren't strong enough.. :(

But it sure was amazing! :D

To live in the North... is cool ;)

Yes, sometimes it is cool. Imagine in Alaska, where they see them in all different colors. I have seen green and pink, here in Minnesota.

Glad there is some good things said about living in the North, usually on here it's "I'm so jealous you can grow..." type messages. I live in the middle, no most of the year growing season, but no house being buried in snow either. But, the few times I've been much North of here I've noticed how incredible the stars are (especially because there is usually less light pollution), and now Northern Lights, there are some benefits it seems.

The sky was full of stars, yep, it looks so crazy when you just stare at them. Also saw a shooting star yesterday.
In Lapland they have Northern Lights quite often, and the photos I've seen are just amazing, have a look:

http://www.luontokuva.org/default.asp?V_DOC_ID=1670

That doesn't look real. I'd love to see it for myself.

It is, I'd like to see it too. And on such places it is so silent you can't hear anything. Only the small voice the northern lights might make (when glowing strong), or some wild animals. :D

I don't recall exactly when, but some time last year there was a huge to do here in VA because for a brief period - like a couple of days - you could see the Northern Lights.

I was out feeding the horses & looked up at the sky, which was varying shades of red, pink, & green. It was too late to still be sunset remnants, so I assumed it was from a distant fire. Later, while at my computer, I was barraged by fellow Virginians discussing the relatively rare VA Northern Lights sighting & how it was in the news & in all the papers, etc., etc. (You can tell how well I keep up on local current events - lol!).

I don't know if this was just a spectacular fluke, or if they're always visible at certain times of the year here.

Evert, thanks for the link. It's beautiful. I haven't seen them since I was a kid growing up in a rural area. But the 50 year old memory is still there.

I've seen them a few times here in northwest Ohio. Once, I was driving home, in an easterly direction, and something caught my eye to the left. I looked over, and OMG, it was like the sky was on fire, only it was a deeper red. It was just fabulous, and amazing. Since that time, I've seen them a couple more times here at home, but they were white, not red like that.

Once when I was pretty little the Northern Lights were visible from my house in Washington. We were sleeping outside that night just for fun, and my cousin woke up my dad to see them, but they didn't wake me up!!! I still remember being left out. And I'm still very disappointed to have missed them.

When our friend from Japan was in Canada, she went far enough north to see them one night. I'm going to have to do that, too!

When I was a kid in WV...we had the Northern lights show up and it scared the populationg in our rural community...people were crying....praying...going up on top of the hill side to pray....it was thought to be the end of time!! I don't know how old I was...but I do remember it...since I am now 71...it may have been 1939-1945..??? How would I find out the date of this event?

Thanks for the nice pictures, Evert. Jo

Thanks for the link! I remember seeing northern lights here in upstate NY about 40 years ago! It was like a big S shape radiating red up into the sky. All these years iI haven't seen a picture like it, The only pictures I've seen have been blue green type colors. One of my "goals: in life is to see the Northern Lights again. The other was to sleigh ride (here's me DRIVING my own sleigh last Feb!) There's plenty to like about living in the north! That's why I live here! But come March I'll be wishing I had the southerners' blooms!