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Photos of the northern lights. Amazing!
Published: 3/9/2012 1:38 PM
Last Modified: 3/9/2012 1:38 PM


The Northern Lights are seen in the skies near Faskusfjordur on the east coast of Iceland on Thursday. JONINA OSKARDOTTIR/AP Photo

The solar flares might have fizzled, but they put on quite a skyward show.

The Associated Press reports that at its peak, it was the most potent solar storm since 2004, but that no power outages or other technological disturbances were reported from the solar storm that started to peter out late Friday morning.

Solar storms, which can't hurt people, can disturb electric grids, GPS systems, and satellites, according to the AP.

As the blog title implies, they can also spread colorful Northern Lights further south than usual, as the latest storm did early Friday.

Without further ado, prepare to be amazed:


The Northern Lights are seen in the skies near Faskusfjordur on the east coast of Iceland on Thursday. JONINA OSKARDOTTIR/AP Photo


The northern lights or aurora borealis fill the western sky Friday, above the Russian Orthodox Saint Nicholas Memorial Chapel in Kenai, Alaska. M. SCOTT MOON/AP Photo/Peninsula Clarion


The largest solar storm in five years sent a huge wave of radiation into earth's atmosphere creating a brilliant show of the aurora borealis near Yellowknife, North West Territories on Thursday. BILL BRADEN/AP Photo/The Canadian Press


The largest solar storm in five years sent a huge wave of radiation into earth's atmosphere creating a brilliant show of the aurora borealis near Yellowknife, North West Territories on Thursday. BILL BRADEN/AP Photo/The Canadian Press


Yellowknife, which is situated directly under the auroral "oval", has some of the best northern lights viewing in the world. Truckers returning from the diamond mines 330 kilometers northeast enjoy the nighttime spectacle as they cruised down the ice road on Prosperous Lake. BILL BRADEN/AP Photo/The Canadian Press


The northern lights or aurora borealis fill the sky above Soldotna, Alaska, early Wednesday, that lasted much of the night. M. SCOTT MOON/AP Photo/Peninsula Clarion


The northern lights fill the northern sky above Gnesen Township, north of Duluth, Minn., early Friday. While a nearly full moon washed out some of the display, what the northern lights lacked in brightness they made up for in motion, with arcs and rays dancing across the sky. ANDREW KRUGER/AP Photo/The Duluth News-Tribune


The northern lights fill the northern sky above Gnesen Township, north of Duluth, Minn., early Friday. ANDREW KRUGER/AP Photo/The Duluth News-Tribune

The best part? More storms are reportedly coming. The federal government's Space Weather Prediction Center told the AP that the same area of the sun erupted again Thursday night, with a milder storm expected to reach Earth early Sunday.

Stay tuned for another show hopefully.

-- Althea Peterson



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Almanac
View 2012
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun
Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
TemperaturePrecipitation
DateHigh TempLow TempTotalMonth to dateHistorical average
1 44° 16° 0 0.00 0.05
2 59° 24° 0 0.00 0.11
3 57° 33° 0 0.00 0.16
4 68° 37° Trace 0.00 0.21
5 69° 29° 0 0.00 0.26
6 66° 33° 0 0.00 0.32
7 59° 38° 0.05 0.05 0.38
8 51° 34° 0 0.05 0.44
9 44° 36° 0.01 0.06 0.51
10 62° 37° 0.07 0.13 0.57
11 54° 28° 0 0.13 0.64
12 44° 30° 0.25 0.38 0.70
13 55° 40° 0.01 0.39 0.76
14 ° ° 0.83
15 ° ° 0.89
16 ° ° 0.95
17 ° ° 1.02
18 ° ° 1.09
19 ° ° 1.16
20 ° ° 1.23
21 ° ° 1.31
22 ° ° 1.38
23 ° ° 1.46
24 ° ° 1.53
25 ° ° 1.61
26 ° ° 1.69
27 ° ° 1.77
28 ° ° 1.85

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Tulsa weather milestones of 2013 (as of Feb. 12)

Highest temperature: 70 on Jan. 11 (Record: 115 on Aug. 15, 1936)
Lowest temperature: 15 on Jan. 16 (Record: Minus-16 on Jan. 22, 1930)
Hottest month (average): 40.5 degrees in January (Record: 91.7 degrees on July 1980)
Coldest month (average): 40. 5 degrees in January (Record: 21.7 in January 1918)
Most snowfall (day): 0.1 of an inch on Feb. 12(Record: 13.2 inches on Feb. 1, 2011)
Most snowfall (month): 0.1 of an inch in February(Record: 22.5 inches in February 2011)
Most rainfall (day): 0.91 of an inch on Jan. 29 (Record: 9.27 inches on May 26-27, 1984)
Most rainfall (month): 1.54 of an inch in January (Record: 18.18 inches on September 1971)
Highest wind speed: 30 mph on Jan. 30
Previous day with any rain: Feb. 12
Previous day with 1 inch or more of rain: Oct. 17, 2012
Previous day with any snow: Feb. 12
Previous day with freezing temperatures: Feb. 12
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Contributors
Staff Writer Althea Peterson started writing for the Tulsa World in March 2007 after previous stops at the Norman Transcript in 2006 and the Oklahoma Gazette in 2005. She followed her older brother from rural Wisconsin (with a public school that never seemed to call snow days) to the University of Oklahoma, but did not follow his pursuit to study meteorology. However, she tries to find as many opportunities to report on the weather as possible.

Staff Writer Jerry Wofford came to the Tulsa World in 2010 from The Manhattan Mercury in Manhattan, Kan. Originally from western Arkansas and a graduate of the University of Oklahoma, Jerry has lived in Tornado Alley his entire life and is one of those people who goes outside when the sirens go off.

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