Northern Lights slash a surprising amount of winter energy bills. Here’s why.

Over many Finnish winters, scientist Timo Asikainen made an observation in his grandma’s old house common to many: when it was cold, money spent on electricity went up. It turns out, though, those cold spells and his energy bills were influenced by an unexpected source in plain sight, the aurora borealis.

While the sun can influence Earth’s temperatures with its ultraviolet radiation, its stream of energetic particles can also affect other aspects of our weather system — including if cold blasts of air will escape from the Arctic.Nobody knows all the nitty-gritty details yet, but Asikainen said the journey begins where our upper atmosphere meets space.

They found that when geomagnetic activity was lower than normal, the polar vortex became weaker and caused extreme and harsh winter weather in Finland around a month later. Conversely, high geomagnetic activity strengthened the polar vortex to keep it more tightly wound, inducing warmer winter temperatures about a month later as well. The effects were only seen in winters when stratospheric winds traveling over the equator blew in a certain direction.

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Dying SpaceX rocket creates glowing, galaxy-like spiral in the middle of the Northern LightsHarry is a U.K.-based senior staff writer at Live Science. He studied marine biology at the University of Exeter before training to become a journalist. He covers a wide range of topics including space exploration, planetary science, space weather, climate change, animal behavior, evolution and paleontology.
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