Could I have seen an Aurora in Texas?

Question

I live in the Dallas area, but I was driving east yesterday on a dark Texas highway when I noticed some faint greenish and redish light in the sky - it was very brief and a little creepy...

Someone told me it could have been a thunderstorm, but the sky was clear and I have seen some thunderstorms - this was no thunderstorm... What could it have been?

Answer 1

Tina is right. Very unlikely that it was the Aurora.

However it is not impossible. A huge solar flairs (Solar Superstorms) can create Auroras all the way down to the equator. In 1859 a superstorm hit. Auroras were seen all over the world at night and telegraph lines were shorted out starting many fires. It took a day of many telegraph operators all over America using the few lines remaining just to get the story behind what had happened through the solar static ridden lines.

If this were to happen today hundreds of billions of dollars would be lost.

I'm sure this didn't happen yesterday night because I didn't see any Aurora outside my house last night and we are using the internet the very next day so you probably didn't see an Aurora. If it was a clear night than thunderstorms and light from the ground reflecting off of clouds are ruled out. The only thing I can think of is the swamp gas explanation all to popular with government agents.

It might also be helpful to not that there is currently a meteor shower visible to the night side of Earth until late August. I don't see how this could be confused with the Aurora, but who knows.

Answer 2

Very unlikely that an aurora would be visible as far south as Texas, and if it had been an aurora, it would have been in the north, not the east. No idea what you saw. Were you anywhere near Marfa?

Answer 3

an aurora is unlikely.

you are too far south, and the sun's activity is very low. not impossible, but unlikely.

Answer 4

If you did it would be very interesting, another possibility might be a noctilucent cloud which would also be most unusual in that area.

It might be worth submitting a report to the site below giving more details if possible e.g time (specify if using local time or other) and as exact a location as possible, direction and if you can some estimate of how high in degrees it was above the horizon (between 0 and 90.)  They have experts that they can consult.

Answer 5

could have been aurora.  they do spread far south at some times.