Cold comfort as snap has region shivering
Most of Toowoomba and the Darling Downs will wake this week to temperatures in the single digits as autumn makes way for winter, lit up by a magnificent southern light display.
A super-large expulsion of plasma and magnetic field from the sun’s atmosphere hit the earth over the weekend, causing a geomagnetic storm which turned the volume up on both the northern and southern lights.
Since Saturday, skies across
Australia have lit up, sometimes reaching as far as Mackay in Queensland, showcasing a spectacular view of pinks, reds, violets, and greens as the aurora australis showcases its strongest force in 20 years.
While cloud cover over the past few nights has made viewing less than desirable in Toowoomba, parts of the Darling Downs reported seeing the incredible light display, particularly in Dalby and Stanthorpe.
Angela Prenzler also posted photos of the sky seen from just outside Dalby on Saturday, May 11.
“There’s hardly anything down south, so I’m not going outside my warm house until there’s a chance of seeing something,” she commented when asked if there was anything happening on Sunday.
Meanwhile Cath Berill managed to capture it that night and posted photos at 5am on Sunday, May 12.
“So thrilled to have captured some pics between the cloud cover – Dalby, QLD,” Cath Berill posted.
The Bureau of Meteorology issued a G5 (severe) geomagnetic storm warning on May 11, something which had not been recorded since October 2003.
The G-scale measures global geomagnetic activity and refers to fluctuations in the Earth’s magnetic field across the globe, it ranges from G1 (minor) to G5 (extreme).
A similar risk of further related events is expected to continue until 6pm on May 14, 2024, a statement from BOM said.
Meanwhile temperatures plunged by up to 9C with overnight minimums in many parts not climbing above 10C as a cold snap grips southern Queensland.
Queensland’s coldest place overnight to Monday was Applethorpe, which only got to 5C.
“For a lot of people, compared to the very mild temperatures recently, this morning was a bit of a shock,” Felim Hanniffy, senior meteorologist at the Bureau of Meteorology, said.
“In comparison to what we saw Sunday, morning temperatures were anywhere from 6-9C cooler Monday morning.”