Here’s why we are seeing the Northern Lights in Greater Vancouver

In time-lapse video posted to YouTube by Tristan Todd, a rare solar storm is captured over Vancouver, B.C.

Christoph Rondeau is a professional photographer and videographer based in Coquitlam. Even if it meant a late night, he wasn’t going to miss out on the rare chance to see the Aurora Borealis.

“It's really light to the eye. And it really took a long exposure photo to really have it coming through,” said Rondeau, who took videos and photos overlooking Pitt River Thursday night.

“But even without that, you could still see it coming in waves and just the motion of and the look of it was pretty fantastic.”

Raj Chopra went to Burnaby Mountain Park, which saw large crowds well into the night and early morning.

“Slowly and gradually we reached there, though it was around 10 to 15 minutes of traffic jam,” said Chopra. “Lights were dancing red, green. I mean, it was a magical experience for me.”

A UBC Professor of Physics and Astronomy explained why Greater Vancouver has already seen multiple displays in 2024.

"It's actually a very natural cycle," said Dr. Boley.

"The sun goes through phases of higher activity and it's on an 11-year period. It varies a little bit for every single cycle, but overall there is a rise and a peak in activity and then it drops again. So, we're getting close to what is expected to be the peak of this solar cycle."

Boley said the peak is filled with increased magnetic activity, in some cases causing power outages and disruptions to satellite navigation systems.

“These things called these coronal mass ejections, where the sun ejects plasma out into space, and sometimes the Earth gets in the way and that creates a geomagnetic storm,” he said.

Boley said it is unlikely Friday night or the weekend will produce similar results to Thursday’s stellar show.

“The forecast is not nearly as good,” he said.

However, while he can’t provide an exact timeline, he does expect a return of a similar display at some point within the next year.