The Sun remains active even though it has probably passed Solar Max—and auroras once again visited low latitudes, including northern Arizona. The geomagnetic storm forecast indicated auroras were likely into the middle latitudes with a chance of appearing at low latitudes. I was ready to view the aurora but the weather was uncooperative. Clouds increased during the day and by sunset a layer of high clouds covered the region. But an hour or two later I was able to see stars overhead (but not low on the horizon) so I decided it might be worth the effort.
It was worth the effort.
As we did for the October 2024 event, we watched and photographed the aurora from Ashurst Lake near Flagstaff, Arizona. I was again hoping to capture reflections of the aurora on the still waters of the lake and was successful. I even managed to capture an image with a heron standing in the shallow water and silhouetted by the bright aurora to the north.
At first the aurora was faint and clouds in the north blocked the view. Gradually, the clouds moved out of the way. And, then, between about 2135 and 2155 MST (0435 to 0455 UTC 12 November 2025) there was a strong substorm that lit up the sky. It was bright enough to illuminate the landscape and even cast faint shadows.
The aurora was seen as far south as latitude 13°N in El Salvador!
Here are a few still images and a time-lapse video. Images were shot with a Nikon D850, Tamron 12mm fisheye lens, ISO 3200, ƒ/4, 15 seconds.
Time-lapse video from 1948–2226 MST (0248–0526 UTC). Very little activity is present at first but then the substorm erupts with numerous pillars developiing along with a SAR (Stable Aurora Red) arc the propogates upgward. And all of this is reflected in the lake.
And there may be yet more big events during this solar cycle!
Here is some additional information about this aurora and current solar cycle.
From Forbes.com:
Some of the strongest and most widespread displays of auroras since Oct. 10, 2024, occurred overnight on Tuesday, Nov. 11, into Wednesday, Nov. 12, according to NOAA, caused by one of the most powerful G4-rated geomagnetic storms of the current solar cycle.
The potent geomagnetic storm occurred after two particularly fast-moving coronal mass ejections — clouds of charged particles from the sun — erupted from the sun on Sunday, Nov. 9, and Monday, Nov. 10, in the wake of an X1.7 and X1.2-class solar flares. It left space weather scientists on high alert this week.
The last three major events from the current solar cycle are shown in this table from Wikipedia:
| 30 April – 12 May 2024 | May 2024 solar storms | X1.2(X1.3)-class flares[95] and X4.5-class flare.[96] The flares with a magnitude of 6–7 occurred between 30 April and 4 May 2024. On 5 May the strength of the solar storm reached 5 points, which is considered strong according to the K-index. The rapidly growing sunspot AR3663 became the most active spot of the solar cycle 25. On 5 May alone, it emitted two X-class (strongest) flares and six M-class (medium) flares. Each of these flares resulted in a short-term but profound disconnection of the Earth’s radio signal, resulting in signal loss at frequencies below 30 megahertz (MHz).[97]
An extreme (G5) geomagnetic storm alert was issued by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) – the first in almost 20 years.[98][99] The final storms reaching the highest level of NOAA’s G-scale before solar cycle 25 occurred in 2005 in May,[100][101][102] August,[103] and September, respectively. With a NOAA rating of G5, an estimated peak Dst of −412 nT, and aurorae seen at far lower latitudes than usual in both hemispheres, this geomagnetic storm was the most powerful to affect Earth since November 2003. A later study estimates a Dst peak of −518 nT, meaning the strongest storm since 1989 and the second strongest since 1921.[71] |
| Oct 2024 | October 2024 solar storm | Triggered by an X1.8 solar flare that produced a relatively fast CME.[104][105] The storm reached a peak Dst of −341 nT.[106] Auroras seen as far south as Cuba.[107] |
| Nov 2025 | November 2025 solar storm | Auroras seen as far south as Central Mexico.[108] |
