Nature's Light Show Makes Stunning Sight in Delaware

(Above) The Northern Lights cast green, pink, red, and purple hues across the sky over Big Stone Beach, Delaware.

By Kate Layton, PDE's Communications Manager

We treasure stolen moments because they are rare and precious; there one second and gone the next.

In October, people all over the country, including in the Delaware River Watershed, had a few stolen moments and a rare front seat to see nature really show off. The aurora borealis, also known as the Northern Lights, stretched much farther south than their usual territory and appeared brightly through much of North America, the United States, and other parts of the world.

Usually, this light show is contained to the northernmost parts of the planet such as the Artic, Scandanavia, Russia, Canada, and Alaska. But a powerful geomagnetic storm caused by intense solar activity gave others across the earth a brief window to see purple, red, pink, and green hues across the starry horizon.

To get a better view and photos of this phenomenon, my husband and I knew we had to get away from urban light pollution and get to one of the darkest areas we could find. We jumped into the car and with a spotty GPS signal and Bob Dylan playing through the speakers, we drove about a half hour east over spooky, twisty back roads from our home near Camden, Delaware, to Big Stone Beach near Frederica where the scarcity of streetlights afforded us a fuller spectrum of colors.

Using our cell phone cameras (phones are better for viewing the northern lights than the naked eye) we watched as colors gradually appeared. Green came first, but pink, magenta, crimson, and purple soon followed. I couldn’t take my eyes away, or hit the shutter on my camera fast enough.

Shivering there on the sand with just a few other spectators to keep us company, it felt like we had the sky, the rocky Delaware Bay beach, and the stars all to ourselves.

As we drove home, excited about the pictures we took, we knew the colors would fade as we slept. We don't know if we'll ever see the Northern Lights shine that brightly off the Delaware Bay again. We were just a couple of shutterbugs standing on a chilly beach, chasing stolen moments and flashes of light in the dark.

STRONG COMMUNITIES: C1.4

The Northern Lights cast green, pink, red, and purple hues across the sky over Big Stone Beach, Delaware.

Did you get photos of October's Northern Lights? Share them with us by emailing them to: klayton@delawareestuary.org.