Aurora Borealis in Victoria, BC!

A Rare & Incredible Light Show with the Aurora Borealis!

On the May 10th, 2024 we got the display of a lifetime when the Aurora Borealis made a spectacular appearance over Victoria on Vancouver Island where we live.

NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) — a division of the US National Weather Service — was monitoring the sun following a series of solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) on May the 8th. Space weather forecasters then issued a Severe Geomagnetic Storm Watch for the evening of Friday, May 10.

CMEs are explosions of plasma and magnetic fields from the sun’s corona. They cause geomagnetic storms when they are directed at Earth. Geomagnetic storms can impact infrastructure in near-Earth orbit and on Earth’s surface, potentially disrupting communications, the electric power grid, navigation, radio and satellite operations. Geomagnetic storms can also trigger spectacular displays of aurora on Earth. A severe geomagnetic storm includes the potential for aurora to be seen as far south as Alabama and Northern California! NOAA Media Advisory

This was forecast to be a major event, with nothing like it in the past 20 years, so I thought I should make the effort to get some place where I could potentially see what might happen. Fortunately where we live at Oceanside RV Resort in Central Saanich on Vancouver Island is remote enough that a short walk out towards the beach is enough to get away from the major sources of light polution.

While we have been north a few times on our RV trips and also to Iceland, we have always missed experiencing the Aurora as we were traveling in the late spring and summer when it was just too see anything.

I wandered out to the “Island” a rocky outcrop in the Island View Marsh that runs behind the RV park. It got me up to a decent height where I could look out over Haro Strait towards James Island and further on, the US San Juan Islands. Behind I could look out at Oceanside RV Resort and a setting fingernail moon.

I was up on the rocks just before 10 PM and wasn’t really seeing much. However, here were some wispy whitish streaks crossing the sky at the time that caught my attention. I wasn’t sure what they were, was that the Aurora, or was it just some wispy clouds? I took my first photo around 10:10 and realized at that point that, yes, I was looking at the Aurora as the camera captured some of colour that my eyes didn’t.

The Aurora Borealis over Southern Vancouver, Island

The early stages of the Aurora

I started playing around with different compositions and fine tuning my exposures. Within 10 minutes the sky was starting to change dramatically as the Aurora intensified. I was starting to get excited! In another 15-20 minutes it was getting spectacular with the colours becoming clearly visible to the naked eye. There were lots of pinkish/red tones in the upper sky with bands of green becoming visible lower down. By 11 PM it was full on amazing!!

Looking over Haro Strait around 10:30 as the show continues to build

A spectacular streak directly overhead at the peak near 11 PM

A spectcular streak of light during the peak

The Aurora continues to develop

Some of the most spectacular displays were to the east over Haro Strait & San Juan Island

Looking west over Oceanside RV Resort & the setting moon during the peak

I continues shooting for another 45 minutes and the light show showed no signs of slowing down. All in all a totally incredible almost surreal experience.