G3 (Strong) Geomagnetic Storm of May 15, 1981
A G3 (strong) geomagnetic storm began May 15, 1981, reached Kp 7 and lasted 6 hours, with a daily Ap as high as 54; at that Kp the aurora may be seen from about 50 degrees geomagnetic latitude.
The Kp through the storm
Began May 15, 03:00 UTC, peaked in the block from May 15, 03:00 UTC, ended May 15, 09:00 UTC.
The storm
- Peak Kp
- 7 (7.00)
- NOAA level
- G3 Strong
- Duration
- 6 hours
- Highest daily Ap
- 54
- Highest 3-hour ap
- 132
- Rank since 1932
- 555 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 50 degrees geomagnetic latitude: 42°N in the central US, 41°N in the eastern US, 44°N in the western US and 51°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
- Washington Heights, NY 50.0° geomag.
- The Bronx, NY 50.0° geomag.
- Fort Wayne, IN 50.1° geomag.
- Des Moines, IA 50.1° geomag.
- Yonkers, NY 50.1° geomag.
- Akron, OH 50.2° geomag.
- Salem, OR 50.3° geomag.
- Aurora, IL 50.6° geomag.
- Cleveland, OH 50.6° geomag.
- Toledo, OH 50.7° geomag.
32 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 |
|---|---|---|
| May 15, 1981 | 54 | 7 |
Flares before it
| Peak (UTC) | Class | Region | Before the storm began |
|---|---|---|---|
| May 13, 04:28 UTC | X1.5 | NOAA 3106 | 47 hours |
| May 11, 05:48 UTC | M2.9 | NOAA 3099 | 93 hours |
| May 14, 08:56 UTC | M2.8 | NOAA 3106 | 18 hours |
| May 11, 16:08 UTC | M2.0 | NOAA 3099 | 83 hours |
| May 14, 03:15 UTC | M1.4 | NOAA 3099 | 24 hours |
| May 13, 18:07 UTC | M1.1 | NOAA 3112 | 33 hours |
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, May 10The storm after, May 16Every 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.