Overview
- KNMI’s Eelco Doornbos said the solar particle cloud reached Earth in about 25 hours rather than the usual one to three days, arriving Monday evening instead of the expected Tuesday morning.
- The aurora was seen with the naked eye across much of the country, with reports from multiple provinces and sightings stretching unusually far south into the Alps and southern France.
- Weerplaza’s Wouter van Bernebeek attributed the intensity to particle speeds above 1,200 km/s, a favorable geomagnetic window around late evening, clear skies, and the absence of moonlight, yielding green, pink, and purple hues.
- Forecasters report the main surge has passed and warned of little new opportunity immediately afterward, though some regions observed weaker, camera-only glows on Tuesday as cloud cover increased.
- Experts link the spectacle to the current solar maximum, with 2026 expected to be the last high-activity year of the cycle, and emphasize that such low-latitude displays in the Netherlands remain uncommon.