Rare red auroras dazzle as part of Manitoba light show

Solar storm chasers, rejoice: 2025 was an excellent year for aurora borealis, and the remainder of the year could be just as active.

Tuesday night’s dazzling display of crimson northern lights grabbed the attention of sky gazers across Manitoba, no matter where they were in the province.

“The colours were striking even from inside the city,” said Scott Young, an astronomer at the Manitoba Museum Planetarium. “It was one of the brightest red auroras that I remember in my lifetime.”

Young noticed a grey haze in the sky but didn’t think it was the northern lights, which were forecast to appear the following evening.

Then a red blotch appeared and he knew the show had begun early.

“I took out my phone and all the colours just lit up because our phone’s cameras are more sensitive to seeing that stuff,” Young said.

The northern lights are caused by solar winds on the sun’s surface interacting with the gas in the upper atmosphere of the earth. What results are curtains of coloured light flickering through the night sky.

The show was seen across several provinces and social media lit up with photos from around the U.S. and parts of Europe.

Depending on the particles in the atmosphere, different colours will emerge. Green and purple are most common. The human eye’s lack of sensitivity to red means the colour is not usually detected.

The burst of red meant plenty of nitrogen particles and other compounds in the atmosphere.

“There was so much energy … there was red everywhere,” Young said of the show.

The increase in northern lights this year is because the sun is at the peak of its 11-year cycle and activity is at its strongest, resulting in more solar gusts. Less daylight helps, too.

“There’s northern lights happening above us right now, we just can’t see it because of the sun,” Young said.

The remainder of the year looks bright, too.

Wednesday night’s forecast was to include the tail end of Tuesday’s solar storm but some astronomers predicted it would be the beginning of a new storm with more vibrant colours.

Ultimately, the outcome is at the whim of the solar gusts.

“Sometimes you expect a big show, and nothing happens. Sometimes you expect nothing and it’s the show of a lifetime,” Young said. “It can change on a dime. It’s fickle, and that’s part of the fun. It’s like you’re chasing something that feels like it doesn’t really want to be caught.”

nicole.buffie@freepress.mb.ca