A severe solar storm is painting northern lights across the sky as far south as Florida

A powerful burst of energy from the sun is streaming past Earth, disturbing energized particles in the highest levels of the atmosphere and painting stunning aurora borealis displays across the night sky as far south as Texas, Alabama, Georgia and even north Florida.

Several eruptions of energy from the sun, known as coronal mass ejections, or CMEs, are expected to reach Earth’s magnetic field over the next two nights. The Space Weather Prediction Center issued a G4 “severe” geomagnetic storm watch for Tuesday and Wednesday. G4 is the second-strongest level on the five-step scale.

Geomagnetic storms happen when the solar wind rushes through Earth’s magnetosphere. Charged particles from the sun interact with gases in the Earth’s atmosphere, causing stunning northern lights, or glowing curtains of green, red and purple light that ripple across the sky.

😍 AURORA ALERT 😍Aurora Borealis are visible at NWS Nashville! Sky conditions should remain clear for great viewing in middle Tennessee tonight, so get out and enjoy it! 🌙For more info on space weather: https://t.co/XQppi160N9 #TNwx #MiddleTNwx pic.twitter.com/CQJFHRXVtN

It’s not all beauty and wonder; a G4 storm brings potential for voltage control problems in power systems, GPS navigation errors and intermittent issues with radio and satellite operations.