Demand for northern lights viewing surges 14-fold in South Urals

Residents of the Southern Urals (Chelyabinsk region) have become more interested in the northern lights. This is evidenced by the traffic to websites where one can «catch» this natural phenomenon in real time. In December and January, visits increased by 40% compared to the same period last year.

Most of the traffic went to internet resources with interactive maps, where users can check the activity index, track the movement of the aurora borealis, and see the probability of its appearance.

The most popular days for observations coincided with periods of the most powerful solar flares. These occurred in mid-November. At that time, users from the South Urals increased their data consumption on these resources by 14 times. The second spike in interest occurred during the New Year holidays. Analysts from the telecom operator Megafon came to this conclusion.

«Sometimes the northern lights can be very close to us: in mid-January, residents of a village in the Southern Urals could observe this unusual phenomenon, and it was also seen in various settlements in the neighboring Sverdlovsk region. At the same time, the traditional place for hunting the »breath of the polar night«—the village of Teriberka in the Murmansk region—is far away. Mobile internet allows people to observe it regardless of where subscribers are located by opening the necessary resource on their smartphone. To facilitate this, we are implementing a program to update telecom infrastructure. For example, last year we built and modernized about 80 sites,» noted Gennady Zhukov, the director of the operator in the Chelyabinsk region.

Due to high solar activity, the atmospheric phenomenon could be seen not only in traditional northern regions but also at middle latitudes. However, when hunting for the northern lights in real life, residents of Chelyabinsk most often traveled to the Murmansk region. This is the destination for 78% of enthusiasts of this natural phenomenon.

Besides the regional capital, popular spots include the village of Teriberka on the coast of the Barents Sea and the settlement of Pechenga, where there is no city light, creating ideal conditions for observation. The second most popular destination is the Arkhangelsk region. Here, residents of the Chelyabinsk region choose the settlement of Golubino and the village of Verkola, which is on the list of the most beautiful villages in Russia.