Durangoans and Silvertonians were treated to a rare light show after sundown Thursday when an aurora borealis, commonly known as the northern lights, appeared in the night skies.
Some residents reported having to use their smartphone cameras to observe the colorful, spectral effects of a geomagnetic storm forecast by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center, which expects the event to persist through Friday night.
But others, particularly in Silverton at 9,302 feet elevation, said they bore witness to the phenomenon with their naked eyes. Still, spectators said viewing through a smartphone camera lens enhanced the dazzling display significantly.
Jerilyn Yazzie, who lives in the Trimble area north of Durango, said she stepped outside and looked northeast toward Missionary Ridge where she could make out greenish and pinkish hues in the sky.
“It was amazing. I think this is on everyone's bucket list and I was glad to view it from home,” she said.
She said she took out her phone, set it to night mode and long exposure over 10 seconds, and took her shot. She posted the photo, depicting elegant, pink cosmic rays giving way to an arching green light, on Nextdoor for others to see.
It was a moment of a lifetime, and a pretty one at that, she said.
She added, “If I didn't have another person there to tell me to switch my phone to long exposure, I probably would have never (seen) it.”
At one point, she and a companion got in her car and drove further away from U.S. Highway 550 because the headlights of vehicles were cramping their view. She suspects the amount of traffic on the road at that hour was due to people flocking to the countryside to view the aurora.
Dave and Jill Donley, who live at the SkyRidge townhomes atop the mesa near Fort Lewis College, said their first introduction to an aurora borealis was in Iceland in 2021. They traveled there specifically to witness the northern lights.
As in Iceland, they required their smartphones on Thursday to see the full spectrum of colors and waves reflecting a magnetosphere in imbalance. They tilted their phones upward at about 8:05 p.m.
“It's just an incredible and unique phenomenon,” Dave Donley said. “The other exciting part is you can capture it on your phone, if you've got the capability to do that. It's just an amazing feat of nature.”
While Durango residents largely relied on cameras to see the northern lights, Silverton resident Bonnie Dumond said the small mountain community could clearly see the aurora dancing above the San Juan Mountains without technology.
She had read about the space weather forecast online, and she said she was determined to witness the event after missing another geomagnetic storm earlier this year.
The show started around 7:30 p.m. before the sun had fully set, she said. The light show appeared to peak around 7:57 p.m.
She said the aurora’s onset gave the appearance of a fire erupting in the mountains.
“It was red, and then it started,” she said.
She was treated to at least several minutes of vertically flowing pillars of light. It was like a phenomenal concert unfolding over the hillsides, she said.
People ventured out of their homes and into the fresh, 40-some degree alpine air; some, like Dumond, were shivering in their socks, having not bothered to waste time putting on shoes. But she didn’t mind.
“Hoping for some more lights tonight,” she said in a message to The Durango Herald. “Truly hope they’re the harbinger of a big snow year.”
cburney@durangoherald.com
