G3 (Strong) Geomagnetic Storm of March 5, 1981
A G3 (strong) geomagnetic storm began March 5, 1981, reached Kp 7+ and lasted 18 hours, with a daily Ap as high as 81; at that Kp the aurora may be seen from about 48 degrees geomagnetic latitude.
The Kp through the storm
Began Mar 5, 03:00 UTC, peaked in the block from Mar 5, 15:00 UTC, ended Mar 5, 21:00 UTC.
The storm
- Peak Kp
- 7+ (7.33)
- NOAA level
- G3 Strong
- Duration
- 18 hours
- Highest daily Ap
- 81
- Highest 3-hour ap
- 154
- Rank since 1932
- 342 of 4,139
How far south the aurora could have been seen
At Kp 7+ NOAA’s scales put the aurora’s reach at about 48 degrees geomagnetic latitude: 40°N in the central US, 39°N in the eastern US, 43°N in the western US and 49°N in northern Europe.
NOAA says a G3 storm’s aurora has been seen as low as Illinois and Oregon.
US cities within reach, the southernmost first
- Baltimore, MD 48.5° geomag.
- Indianapolis, IN 48.7° geomag.
- Columbus, OH 49.0° geomag.
- Lincoln, NE 49.1° geomag.
- Philadelphia, PA 49.1° geomag.
- Eugene, OR 49.4° geomag.
- Pittsburgh, PA 49.6° geomag.
- Omaha, NE 49.6° geomag.
- Staten Island, NY 49.8° geomag.
- Brooklyn, NY 49.8° geomag.
53 US cities of 150,000 people or more sit at or poleward of that line. Low on the northern horizon under a dark, clear sky; not a record of sightings.
Day by day
The daily Ap is the mean of the day’s eight three-hour ap values.
| UT day | Daily Ap | Highest Kp that day |
|---|---|---|
| March 5, 1981 | 81 | 7+ |
Flares before it
| Peak (UTC) | Class | Region | Before the storm began |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 2, 22:35 UTC | M2.0 | NOAA 2954 | 52 hours |
| Mar 3, 07:47 UTC | M2.0 | NOAA 2954 | 43 hours |
| Mar 3, 13:26 UTC | M1.4 | 38 hours | |
| Mar 2, 21:20 UTC | M1.3 | NOAA 2954 | 54 hours |
| Mar 4, 17:27 UTC | M1.2 | NOAA 2954 | 10 hours |
| Mar 5, 07:15 UTC | M1.2 | NOAA 2964 | during it |
The strongest M and X class flares GOES recorded from four days before the storm began to its end, the window in which a coronal mass ejection launched with a flare usually arrives. A flare in this list is context, not proof of the cause: many storms come from coronal holes, and many flares launch nothing toward Earth.
More
The storm before, Mar 1The storm after, Mar 13Every storm of 1981The strongest on recordThis day in weather historyTonight’s aurora forecast
Sources
Kp and ap from GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences, Geomagnetic Observatory Niemegk, licensed CC BY 4.0: Matzka, J., Stolle, C., Yamazaki, Y., Bronkalla, O. and Morschhauser, A., 2021, The geomagnetic Kp index and derived indices of geomagnetic activity, Space Weather, doi:10.1029/2020SW002641; data doi:10.5880/Kp.0001. Storms, levels and aurora reach worked out by WeatherOverTime from those values and NOAA’s space weather scales. Definitive through August 31, 2026; later values are preliminary. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Flares from NOAA NCEI’s GOES X-ray flare reports (1975 to 2017) and SWPC’s edited solar event lists, public domain; classes as NOAA recorded them at the time.