Aurora Borealis | Northern Lights | Canada

A True Northern Lights Spectacle In Canada

How lucky we are to witness this magic!

My partner and I are back in our home country of Canada visiting friends and family. Currently, we are staying with Chris’ mom, helping her pack up and move house.

Yesterday evening, she gasped at a Facebook post from a friend who lived just 15 km away. 2 nights earlier, they had seen a spectacular northern lights show in their backyard and she was sharing photos of it.

She showed me the picture.

“Oh wow! I wonder if we can see them tonight?” I asked. The sky was clear and I knew that the conditions were good to see them if they were visible.

Of course, she wasn’t sure and I never thought to look it up online to see if they were predicted.

“We will have to go out for a walk tonight and check,” I said to Chris.

He agreed.

My past experience with the northern lights

The last time I saw a really good northern lights show I was 18 years old and in my hometown of Canmore, Alberta, Canada. A bunch of us were partying in a friend’s backyard for his 18th birthday when a spectacle unfolded above us. This would have been in 1994, almost 30 years ago.

The loud and raucous party ground to a halt as we all stopped to lie on the grass and stare up at the sky in silence. I remember pink and purple swirls circling above us, and the way the green lights danced over the mountains was simply breathtaking.

It almost felt like a spiritual awakening of some sort and I can guarantee that every person at that party remembers that night, drunk or not.

I do remember seeing them quite often as a kid, but not all shows are equal, and I’m just thankful that I was old enough to appreciate and remember the experience I had at 18.

Later, in my early 20’s, I moved out to the West Coast of Canada. While I saw a few very faint displays of the Northern Lights from there, it was nothing like the spectacles that I saw as a child living in the Rocky Mountains.

I will admit that I took all of this for granted until I started to realize what a special experience it is to see them.

What are Northern Lights?

Through my work as an editor of Globetrotters, I have read a few articles about people venturing to see the Northern Lights. One that stands out to me is Jamey Melcher’s article The Promise of Northern Lights In Iceland.

Thankfully, she knows a lot more about the Northern Lights than I do. In her article, she highlights what they actually are:

I learned a lot about the aurora borealis through all this research. The green color that we typically see dancing across the sky when they reveal themselves is created by solar particles, blown toward Earth from the Sun. These electrically charged particles are repelled by Earth’s magnetic field except toward the poles where the magnetic fields are weakest, and some solar particles are able to enter our atmosphere.

At altitudes of 50–150 miles above Earth there is a high concentration of oxygen, and it’s that collision between oxygen and the solar particles that creates the green lights. At lower points in the atmosphere the lights collide with nitrogen and appear purple or red, but it’s the green flashes and swirls that are most commonly seen with the naked eye.

If you are interested in learning more, her article is well worth the read.

I also really appreciated Vincent Gragnani’s article A 100-Mile Search For the Northern Lights. His story tells us of his desperate search for the lights and driving from Norway to Finland to find them. His pictures are fabulous and well worth a look.

The hunt for the Northern Lights

What struck me most, though, in reading these and other articles about hunting for the Northern Lights, is that people invest a ton of money, research and time into getting the opportunity to glance at this fabulous phenomenon.

People travel very far distances and do a lot of research to try and time their arrival to see them perfectly.

As I stated earlier, I will admit that for most of my life, I have taken them for granted. To me, it was just something that we saw from time to time, and I really didn’t give them the credit that they deserved until I read these stories.

As I have been reading these articles in recent months, I started to wonder if I would ever see this spectacle again. We had no desire to come back to Canada in the winter, which is the best time to see them, and I would likely never spend a huge amount of money to see something that I grew up seeing.

But, one thing led to the other, and here we are, back in Canada, and with perfect timing, it would seem.

Initially, we forgot about them

Engrossed in our online work last night after dinner, the fact that the northern lights may be visible, completely escaped our minds. Talk about being spoiled!

It wasn’t until Chris’ stepdad went to bed and decided to glance out the window to see what he could see, before heading to sleep.

He came out of his room and said, “Those northern lights are out if you want to take a look. I saw a skimpy display to the south but there are probably more to the north.”

“Oh my god! I completely forgot!” I announced as I jumped up out of my chair. “Thank you so much for reminding us.”

We lept to action immediately and ran around putting on our cold weather gear to head out into the below-zero temperatures.

We hit the jackpot!

Thankfully Chris’ mom lives on a farm and is well away from any light pollution. This meant that the minute we stepped out onto the back deck, we were immediately met with an incredible spectacle just above the tree line.

Of course, we were entranced. We couldn’t believe that this was just going on outside our back door. We literally stumbled upon one of the best displays I have seen (darn close to the one I saw at 18), basically for free and with zero planning.

At first, we were engrossed with the display that was in front of us, but as we left the deck and walked out into the yard, we realized that they were all around us. There was a swirling and twirling vortex going on right above us, then the green lights fell down and danced around us. Again, it felt like some sort of spiritual awakening.

We were speechless.

Though the camera actually picked up the purple better than we saw it, I could also see it with the naked eye. It was the first time I had seen colors other than green since that moment in 1994.

I also recorded a video of what we were seeing that I uploaded to YouTube. Though this was not the most spectacular part of the show, it does give you a sense of how the green lights closer to the horizon seem to almost dance.

Realizing how lucky we are

The older I get, the more I realize how lucky we were to have grown up in Canada. I guess traveling full-time for the past 5 years has also brought with it a new perspective.

Though I do believe that Canada is not the place for me to live long-term, I will always value and cherish my childhood and early life here. This country quite simply made me who I am today, and I will never forget that or take it for granted.

Nights like the one we had last night, certainly put everything into perspective that much better.

As the show started to decrease, we spent a few more minutes taking it all in, gasping at the amazingness of it all, and just appreciating the peaceful and quiet moment.

To make the evening even more special, it was our 10-year anniversary. Was the show put on just for our special celebration?

I like to think it was:)

More of my writing about the environment:

If you like my writing and want to read more, subscribe to Medium through my referral link (I will earn a small commission) to get full access! Plus sign up here to get my articles by email!

We have been nomadic since 2017! Join our journey by hitting the links below!

Website | Instagram | Facebook | LinkedIn| Patreon| YouTube | Medium