Northern Lights: “I knew you could see them in Lapland or Norway, but in France, I would never have believed it”

She had the privilege of witnessing an unforgettable moment. Nadège, 38, mother of four children, lives in Bérat, south of Toulouse. Passionate about photography, she had the opportunity to observe, during the night from Thursday to Friday, for the first time in her life an aurora borealis, like many French people. She observed the phenomenon in Latrape, on the heights of Carbonne.

Most intense peak around 1 a.m.

“Honestly, it was fantastic. I knew you could see them in Lapland or Norway, but in France, I would never have believed it until I discovered the group ‘Aurores Boréales France’. That evening, the The sky cleared around 10:30 p.m., and an hour later, I was able to see the auroras with the naked eye, which is rare for us,” she tells La Dépêche du Midi. It was around 1 a.m. that the peak was most intense: “the auroras were visible to the naked eye from 1:10 a.m. to 1:30 a.m.,” says Nadège.

It was a solar flare that triggered these northern lights. It is accompanied by coronal mass ejections which, when they reach our magnetic field, cause this phenomenon. Currently, the Sun is going through a period of high activity, leading to frequent auroras in recent months.

And for Nadège, it was truly “a magical moment”. “Seeing these columns of light moving in the sky, even if they were less spectacular than in the films, it was incredible. I didn’t expect to feel so much emotion in front of such a spectacle,” she admits.