BOSTON – Floridians, including those with ties to Massachusetts, are picking up the pieces as Hurricane Milton left behind a path of destruction overnight.

“A whole new fear level”

“If it was daytime, it would be a different story, but there’s a whole new fear level when you have it at night,” said Jen Rivers, who moved to the suburbs of Orlando from North Andover. Milton’s fury ripped her neighbor’s pool screens off at the height of the storm.

“This time I wasn’t taking any chances,” evacuee Evan Conway said. The Weymouth native was stuck in gridlock traffic trying to escape from Tampa to Georgia. Hurricane Helene already flooded out Evan’s home – now this. “From the last storm, it’s probably completely underwater.”

Home withstands hurricane

And remember the Bradenton family whose house was built to withstand a Category 5 storm? Rivers said the Semeraro family is in good spirits and didn’t have any damage at all, despite being in Milton’s path. They did, however, lose cellphone service.

“Their house withstood the hurricane like they said it would,” Rivers explained.

Unknown what they’re returning home to

For the millions who did evacuate, the realization is setting in that they don’t know what they’re going home to.

“By no means am I expecting to get off scot-free. I’m anticipating a pretty bad scene. I’m just kind of hoping I didn’t lose everything again,” Conway said.

As for if any of the Massachusetts natives regret moving to Florida, “These storms, yeah, they make you question it,” Rivers joked. “But I would take the sunny days every day over 11 feet of snow!”

BOSTON – The northern lights could put once again put on a show in Massachusetts tonight and Friday night, according to the latest aurora forecast. You could say New England is becoming the “new Iceland.”

Over the last several months the sun has been incredibly active, unleashing a series of coronal mass ejections from its surface.

The last week or so has been one of the most active periods we have seen in years. For the last several nights, folks have been spotting the northern lights all over New England. The geomagnetic storm responsible for those amazing views is now subsiding.  

But it’s not over yet. Another massive CME occurred Tuesday. This emanated from a giant sunspot (AR3848) that was facing directly at Earth.

Severe geomagnetic storm watch

Space weather forecasters have issued a “Severe G4 Geomagnetic Storm Watch for Thursday and Friday.

We will know more as we get more data and are closer to the time of the event, but early indications are that we could be treated to another amazing couple of nights in the sky.

What causes the northern lights and aurora borealis?

Meteorologist Jacob Wycoff explained what causes the northern lights earlier this year, when the aurora borealis put on a stunning display in May over the region after a sunspot sent electrons toward Earth.

“What happened is, those electrons, they interacted with our atmosphere,” he explained. “And depending on the element and the altitude at which they were interacting with the atmosphere, that’s where we got the colors from.”

Sun blast may have ripped comet’s tail

Finally, check out this amazing image from a SOHO spacecraft currently orbiting around the sun.

Remarkably, it caught the massive CME AND Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS!

Scientists think it is possible that the massive blast from the sun might have ripped off part of the tail of the comet. Time will tell as the comet comes back into view this weekend in the western horizon.