The Geomagnetic Storm at Perry Lake, Kansas

On Monday, October 24th, 2011, at approximately 1:00 PM, Earth was struck by a coronal mass ejection. The impact strongly compressed Earth’s magnetic field and sparked an intense geomagnetic storm. As night fell over North America, Auroras spilled across the Canadian border into the contiguous United States. In a rare, historic reverberation, the storm pushed south into Kansas. Photographer Stephen Locke documented the event from Perry Lake, northeast of Topeka. ... Typically restricted to the polar regions, blazing red “Northern Lights“ were ultimately observed deep into the southern tier of the continental United States, with parts of Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia receiving their once in a generation glimpse of this astronomical phenomenon . For more of Stephen’s work, visit