A severe solar storm triggered by an intense solar flare could reach “extreme” proportions in bombarding Earth, officials at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) warned on Thursday (October 10).

Scientists with NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Group (SWPC) said a cloud of charged solar material, called a coronal mass ejection, hit Earth around midday, triggering a “severe” geomagnetic storm that will impact power grids and GPS and radio communications systems could. They also magnify northern lights in regions where they are not normally visible.