Aurora records in the Spanish newspaper Extremadura for the period 1923–2017

Aurora records are a valuable proxy for understanding historical solar behavior. This study explores historical records of auroras reported in the Spanish newspaper Extremadura from 1923 to 2017. We found and analyzed 31 news articles, categorizing them into direct observations and general reports. The compiled news includes significant auroral events that occurred in 1926, 1938, 1950, 1956, 1957, 1958, and 1991. The news reports on aurorae visible not only in the Extremadura area but also across Spain and in other parts of the world. We have extracted information on the characteristics, places, timing, and societal impacts of auroras, in addition to providing information on these events included in previous scientific literature. This collection of auroral reports highlights historical newspapers as documentary sources for reconstructing solar activity and its effects on Earth.

1 Introduction

The study of solar activity is of great importance due to its influence on our society (Pulkkinen, 2007). Solar activity can manifest through different phenomena such as sunspots, coronal mass ejections, and auroras (Usoskin, 2023). Sunspot records represent the longest dataset of direct solar observations, and, for that reason, the sunspot number is the most used index to characterize long-term solar activity (Muñoz-Jaramillo and Vaquero, 2019; Arlt and Vaquero, 2020; Clette et al., 2023).

Auroras are valuable proxies for studying historical solar behavior, as well as for offering a complementary perspective to sunspot observations (Eddy, 1976; Siscoe, 1980; Silverman, 1992; Silverman and Hayakawa, 2021; Yan et al., 2023). They are more common at high latitudes, but significant geomagnetic storms can produce auroras visible at lower latitudes (Hayakawa et al., 2018, 2020; González-Esparza et al., 2024). The frequency and intensity of these events are closely linked to the solar cycle (Vázquez et al., 2016). Therefore, historical records of auroras provide a valuable dataset for reconstructing solar activity over long timescales. Some examples of the use of historical aurora records to reconstruct solar activity can be found in Love (2018), Hapgood (2019), and Hayakawa et al. (2019, 2023).

Historical aurora observations have also been recorded in the Iberian Peninsula by means of different documentary sources. For example, auroral displays were observed in Spain during the geomagnetic storms of 1859 and 1870 (Vaquero et al., 2008). Aurora catalogs including Iberian records have been compiled by Rico Sinobas (1855) and Aragonès and Ordaz (2010). Systematic aurora records made in Lisbon and Barcelona in the 18th and 19th centuries were presented by Vaquero and Trigo (2005) and Vaquero et al. (2010). An analysis of the great auroral display in 1770 was made by Carrasco et al. (2018) based on Spanish records, and an analysis of the historical catalogs by Rico Sinobas was made by Vaquero et al. (2003). Also, Carrasco and Vaquero (2020) provided new descriptions by Iberian observers of the great aurora observed in March 1582 (Hattori et al., 2019). In any case, we note that aurora observations are quite rare from the Iberian Peninsula in general and from the Extremadura region in particular.

Valuable information on auroras and their impact on society can be found in news published in journals and newspapers (Odenwald, 2007, 2021). In this work, we recover all the information on auroras included in the news reports published by the Spanish newspaper Extremadura from 1923 to 2017. Despite the scarcity and dispersion of data on auroras in a local newspaper such as Extremadura, which provides information from a low-latitude region where these phenomena are unlikely to occur, this effort is both valuable and necessary. Research on major geomagnetic storms can utilize these records to confirm whether auroras were observed in a region such as Extremadura. Furthermore, these data may be of particular interest to social scientists seeking to examine the impact of geomagnetic storms on public opinion throughout the 20th century.

The outline of this work is as follows. We provide information on the documentary sources and on how we have searched for aurora events in those sources and a description of the data in Sect. 2. We analyze and discuss the information on different historical aurorae found in the news in Sect. 3. Lastly, we present our final remarks in Sect. 4.

2 Data and methodology

2.1 Documentary source

Extremadura is a regional Spanish newspaper based in the region of Extremadura. Founded in 1923, it is one of the oldest and most recognized media sources in the region. It covers local, national, and international news, with a focus on events and topics of interest for the region of Extremadura. Currently, in addition to its print editions, Extremadura also publishes digital content. Its publications include reports; opinions; and sections dedicated to culture, sports, economy, and society.

2.2 Location of news of interest

For this study, we have collected a digital version of all of the issues published by Extremadura since its beginning in 1923. Issues published since 2014 are available on the website: https://www.elperiodicoextremadura.com/hemeroteca/ (last access: 16 June 2025); previous issues were provided by the staff of Extremadura upon request. Once the documentary sources were collected in digital format (PDF format), a search using character recognition for more than a dozen key words (of geophysical interest) was conducted for the newspaper Extremadura. Thanks to this systematic search for terms of geophysical interest, our team located, for example, a super-bolide (Vaquero et al., 2023), the fall of a meteorite (Vaquero et al., 2024), and an exceptional month of electrical storms that caused considerable damage (Acero et al., 2025). Regarding aurora events, we found 31 news articles including information on them. Note that there is also the expression “luces del norte” (“Northern Lights” in Spanish), but its use is very limited compared to the common term “aurora”. Moreover, other words that have been included in our systematic search are also useful to detect news about auroras, such as “phenomenon”.

2.3 Data description

General newspapers such as Extremadura do not publish news items based on regular nighttime observations. However, this is not a limitation when it comes to drawing conclusions about the attention paid to the aurora by Extremadura. In fact, it reflects the sporadic but significant interest in such rare phenomena in this region.

There are meteorological records for Extremadura from the 19th century (Vaquero et al., 2022) that could potentially contain observations of auroras to compare with the data offered in the newspaper. However, as far as we know, (i) nocturnal meteorological observations are not common, and (ii) there are no cameras that cover the entire sky to record auroras systematically and regularly in Extremadura (and, in early times such as 1923, this type of instrumentation did not exist).

The news articles published by Extremadura on aurorae can be divided into two categories: direct observations and general reports and analyses. There are 12 news items including specific descriptions of direct aurora observations and 19 news items with general reports.

News about observations includes historical events, such as the auroras seen during geomagnetic storms in 1926, 1938, 1950, 1956, 1957, 1958, and 1991. These news items describe auroras observed not only in Extremadura but also in other cities in Spain and around the world. Some news items provide detailed descriptions of the auroras, including information about the duration and impact on society. Furthermore, there is one ambiguous news article from 1952 in which it is not clear if the observed phenomenon was actually an aurora (see Sect. 3.8 for more details).

General reports cover scientific research and explanations on aurorae. They include attempts to create artificial auroras by Soviet and French scientists in 1974, explanations about aurora formation by the meteorologists Mariano Medina (news from 1979) and José María Lorente (news from 1955), and a discussion on the relationship between auroras and solar activity by Martin Pomerantz (news from 1972) from the Bartol Research Institute (USA). Moreover, six news items between 2008 and 2009 report on scientific publications on aurorae, led by Professor José Manuel Vaquero from the University of Extremadura and highlighting the historical impact and relevance of aurorae in relation to contemporary scientific research. Some NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) missions are also mentioned, such as the THEMIS mission and the launch of Delta 2, both from 2007, which aimed to study geomagnetic storms and aurorae. Three other news items in the 2010s describe expeditions to Greenland, Iceland, and Norway by aurora hunters to observe and study the phenomenon.

Figure 1 Locations mentioned in news items published in Extremadura reporting on aurora observations. Different markers indicate the auroras described in the articles: red dots for the 1926 storm, blue triangles for the 1938 storm, green pentagons for the 1950 storm, black square for the 1956 storm, thin orange diamond for the 1957 storm, purple diamond for the February 1958 storm, cyan plus sign for the September 1958 storm, and gray stars for the 1991 storm.

3 News on historical aurora observations in Extremadura: analysis and discussion

In this section, we describe and analyze the news articles containing specific information on aurorae published in Extremadura. A summary of the descriptions can be found in Table 1. Furthermore, Fig. 1 shows a map including the locations where auroras were observed as mentioned in Extremadura. We emphasize that there is currently no series or catalog of auroras observed in the Iberian Peninsula during the 20th century, except for the data presented in this paper. We also provide information from other scientific studies and documentary sources on the geomagnetic storms that caused the auroras reported in Extremadura to compare with the information included in our primary source.

Table 1 Summary of the descriptions of specific aurora observations published in the newspaper Extremadura for the period 1923–2017.

Figure 2 Two news articles published in the newspaper Extremadura covering the geomagnetic storm of January 1926. A translation of the text mentioning the aurora and its description can be seen in Sect. 3.1. Source: Extremadura, 1926.

3.1 January 1926

There are two news articles related to the geomagnetic storm of January 1926 that were published in Extremadura (Fig. 2). The first one was a short news item published on 29 January 1926. Its English translation is as follows:

Aurora borealis. It appears in the United States. Reports from New York indicate that a brilliant aurora borealis was seen for several hours during the night of the 27th over the United States.

The second one, published on 17 July 1926, contains a more detailed analysis of the event. The translation regarding the mention of the aurora is as follows:

An extremely curious phenomenon took place on 26 January [1926]. On that day, our globe was under a dynamic ocean of prodigious power, resulting in the unleashing of a formidable magnetic storm which triggered telluric currents of such violence that telegraphic and telephone communications as well as transmissions by submarine cables were interrupted for several hours … A magnificent polar aurora covered the sky not only in the polar regions but also in our latitudes. Professor Carl Störmer, who has carried out very interesting studies on the aurora borealis, observed that the point of irradiation of the rays reached seventy-two degrees in the Oslo sky and that they had a length of approximately 503 kilometers, giving us an idea of the height of our atmosphere. The phenomenon began at 18:04 in the form of a yellow-greenish arc from the north and a strong red arc from the northwest. An hour later the spectacle was truly marvelous. Gradually, the arc was transformed into an immense corona which gave off dazzling rays of a very high red coloring. From one o'clock to three o'clock on the morning of the 27th, intense green and violet glows were observed, which gradually disappeared until it was completely gone. This splendid aurora borealis was seen in Sweden, Denmark, Germany, France and other northern regions.

The first news item reports a bright aurora seen in New York for several hours on the night of 27 January 1926. The second news item describes, in more detail, a geomagnetic storm on 26 January, indicating a start time of 18:04 LT (all times are in local time unless otherwise specified, with auroras being observed in Oslo, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, France, and other northern regions. This storm disrupted telegraph, telephone, and submarine cable transmissions for several hours. The height of the aurora in Oslo was 72°. The news item reports that this geomagnetic storm was recorded by observatories such as Meudon (France) and Ebro (Spain). It is estimated that the diameter of the sunspot group responsible for this storm was around 100 000 km. Mention is also made of the relationship between sunspots, faculae, and prominences with the solar cycle.

This event was also reported by other observatories, such as the Stonyhurst College Observatory, where geomagnetic measurements, without the provision of any description of the aurora, were carried out (Rowland, 1926). Newspapers from the USA, including The New York Times and The Washington Post, reported issues similar to those published by Extremadura, such as wire service and telegraph disruptions (Odenwald, 2021).

3.2 January 1938

There is one news article providing some information on the geomagnetic storm that occurred on 25–26 January 1938, known as the Fatima Storm (since it was considered to be one of the Fatima Prophesies by Roman Catholics). The English translation is as follows:

San Fernando – The Astronomical Observatory reported yesterday that the phenomenon observed the night before was an Aurora Borealis of varying intensity. Its presence was recorded at 23:00 and lasted until 2:00 in the morning, with its maximum intensity at 21:00 and 23:30. Aurora is due to a magnetic phenomenon that can be repeated several times. No other case is remembered in Andalusia, and the Andalusian sky, so blue and serene, offered a beautiful aspect that was witnessed by a crowd of people until the aurora was no longer perceived. In San Fernando, the magnetic instruments had been showing alterations for several days before.

FROM THE SCANDINAVIAN COUNTRIES TO THE MEDITERRANEAN. Berlin – All the press are commenting on the presence of the Aurora Borealis. It has been perceptible from the Scandinavian countries to the Mediterranean. Many data have been taken at the observatories which will require laborious and fruitful study. There is also a widespread opinion that the phenomenon may repeat itself.

IN SOUTHERN ITALY. Rome – The Aurora Borealis has been perceived all over the country, but with the highest intensity in the southern regions.

IN POLAND. Warsaw – The Aurora Borealis of the day before yesterday was seen here in the form of multicolored lines on a dark red background. Later, it splits into two bands and in the early morning it was no longer visible.

The Aurora Borealis was reported to have been perceptible in all European countries.

According to this news article, the aurora was visible throughout Europe, including at the Royal Observatory of the Spanish Navy in San Fernando. In Andalusia (Spain), the aurora started at 21:00 and finished at 02:00, with intensity peaks that occurred at 21:00 and between 23:00 and 23:30. It was perceived with great intensity in the southern regions of Italy, and the color of the aurora was red, as observed from Poland.

Anonymous (1938) noted that the aurora was remarkable for its brilliance and the wide area of visibility, seen across Europe and as far south as Gibraltar and Sicily, on the night of 25–26 January 1938. This source also provides observations made in different places of the British Isles. For example, the Kew Observatory reported that the aurora was red, spreading from north-northeast to west-northwest, reaching elevations of 5 to 10° above Polaris. The aurora started at 18:00 according to the information sent by J. M. Brierley to the British Meteorological Office. Hayakawa et al. (2021) estimated the intensity of this geomagnetic storm in terms of the Dcx index to be $\approx -$336 nT at 23:00 UT on 25 January. We note that the Dcx index is an extended version of the Dst index used at the University of Oulu (Mursula et al., 2008). The maximum Kp index was 9 (https://kp.gfz-potsdam.de/en/, last access: 16 June 2025).

Odenwald (2021) shows that some of the impacts of this storm were disruptions in all transatlantic radio communication and delays in express trains on the Manchester to Sheffield line due to effects on the signaling apparatus. Newspapers around the world, such as The New York Times and The London Times, provided information on this geomagnetic storm and its impact on society. Spanish newspapers of the time, such as ABC, also reported on this historical event. We highlight that the aurora seen during this geomagnetic storm occurred during the Spanish Civil War. Many Spanish citizens and soldiers, unaware of the phenomenon, interpreted it as a presage of greater tragedies, adding to the existing atmosphere of uncertainty and fear. Recently, some Spanish newspapers, such as El País and El Mundo, have published news items on this historical event (Bachiller, 2013).

3.3 February 1950

Two newspaper articles in Extremadura reported on the aurora of 20 February 1950. The first one was published on 21 February 1950, and the second one was published on 9 March 1950 (Fig. 3). Their English translations are as follows:

BARCELONA – At 10 PM last night, the presence of the aurora borealis was observed, which aroused the curiosity of the public. It seems that the phenomenon can be explained by the existence of spots observed on the Sun during these days.

From Hervás – … On the night of the 20th, the sky was tinged with red, which is seen at other points, and some people say it looked like an aurora borealis. Some gullible and timorous people considered it, no less, a harbinger of war.

The first news item describes the aurora that was observed from Barcelona, starting at 22:00, attributing it to sunspots. The second news item mentions that the sky turned red over Hervás (Extremadura) and also over other unspecified locations on the night of 20 February.

Newton and Finch (1951) identified that the sunspot groups responsible for this storm had a maximum area of 2800 millionths of solar hemisphere. Moreover, they also show geomagnetic records of this storm. Parker (1951) indicated that the largest magnetic storm in 1950 was that of 19–20 February, but this was not a very great storm. The maximum Kp index was 9−. We found that The New York Times reported worldwide radio communication disruptions due to solar and geomagnetic activity (Odenwald, 2021). The report of Extremadura informed readers that this event had a social impact in Extremadura since some people believed that the aurora was a sign of a new war. No additional observer descriptions of the aurora were found beyond those published by Extremadura.

Figure 3 A news article published in Extremadura on the geomagnetic storm of February 1950. Source: Extremadura, 1950.

3.4 January 1957

Extremadura published three news articles mentioning an aurora in January 1957 (Fig. 4). One news item published on 24 January 1957 indicated that the aurora borealis seen in different places across the planet (including Spanish cities and also Vienna) on 21 January was due to an intense solar storm that occurred on 20 January. A news article published on 27 January 1982 reported that an aurora borealis had been seen in several Spanish cities 25 years ago. Only one news item published on 23 January 1957 includes specific information on the aurora. Its English translation is as follows:

Seville: An aurora borealis was seen in this capital, mainly from the northern sector between the Macarena and the Madrid Road. The red glow spread slowly. The phenomenon lasted about 20 min. According to the meteorological service, the phenomenon usually occurs every 12 or 14 years.

Huelva: A very red cloud appeared over the Molina de la Vega district, in the northern part of the city, which began to descend gradually until died out.

Ávila: A strange meteorological phenomenon was observed in the northern part of the city at 11:45 PM. A red spot covered a large part of the sky and slowly faded away. It is believed to be an aurora borealis.

Lugo: The whole capital was impressed by a gigantic glow that covered the sky.

Monforte de Lemos: A curious phenomenon was observed in this town. The northern Octave of the West was covered with a rosy glow which is supposed to be a refraction in space of an aurora borealis with the same characteristics as those that occurred in 1956.

Salamanca: In the early hours of yesterday, towards the part of the Pizarrales, a strange meteorological phenomenon was observed, consisting of a great reddish mantle extending to a great height.

The aurora was observed over the Spanish cities of Seville, Huelva, Ávila, Lugo, Monforte de Lemos, and Salamanca on 21–22 January 1957. Reports indicated that the aurora was red and was visible in the northern side of the sky over Seville, Huelva, and Monforte de Lemos. The phenomenon lasted 20 min according to the record from Seville, while it is noted that it started at 23:45 in Ávila. An intense red light was seen in Lugo and Salamanca. Firefighters were mobilized for several hours, believing that the aurora was actually a big fire.

Paton (1958) highlighted this aurora as one of the three more significant aurorae seen in that year, indicating that it could have been seen as an overhead arc in the south of England. Cragg (1958) published solar-activity observations, with sunspot number values and geomagnetic measurements made in 1957. He listed the January 1957 storm as one of the most intense for that year, starting on 21 January and ending on 24 January. This storm reached a minimum Dst index of −250 nT at 23:00 UT (https://wdc.kugi.kyoto-u.ac.jp/index.html, last access: 16 June 2025), and the maximum Kp index was 9−. Regarding news published on this storm, The Chicago Daily Tribune informed readers that a plane crash that occurred in the Pyrenees was blamed on the aurora of 24 January 1957 (Odenwald, 2021).

We also highlight that the report made in Monforte de Lemos on this aurora indicates that a similar aurora was seen in 1956.

Figure 4 News articles published in Extremadura on the geomagnetic storm of January 1957. News items published on 23 (left) and 24 (right) January 1957. Source: Extremadura, 1957.

3.5 February 1958

Information on two geomagnetic storms in 1958 is included in two news articles, one for February and another for September (Fig. 5). The storm that occurred in September 1958 is detailed in Sect. 3.6. The English translation including the relevant information for the aurora in February is as follows:

On the night of 10–11 February 1958, the crew of the German ship Beate Bolten from Hamburg, Germany, sighted an aurora borealis near the Panama Canal. It was the aurora borealis observed closest to the equator for the International Geophysical Year.

Extremadura reported that the closest aurora to the Equator seen in the International Geophysical Year was observed by the crew of the German ship Beate Bolten as far south as the Panama Canal on 10–11 February. Furthermore, the article provides information on where auroras can be seen and also on the aurora program developed by Germany, including a summary of the aurora frequency and shapes observed for the period 1957–1959. It is indicated that, in that period, German captains sighted about 12 aurorae around Spain and even 1 over the coast of North Africa. In addition, details on observations made during the Explorer VI mission and the ARGUS experiment in 1958 are included.

Akasofu (1962) defined this storm as exceptional, with Dst index values below −400 nT and intense red auroras visible at low, middle, and high latitudes. In particular, the Dst index reached a value of −426 nT on 11 February at 12:00 UT, and the maximum Kp index was 9. Several newspapers, such as The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times, reported radio blackouts, telegraph issues, and auroras as far south as Los Angeles (Odenwald, 2021).

Figure 5 News article published in Extremadura on the geomagnetic storm of February 1958. Source: Extremadura, 1961.

3.6 September 1958

The news item published in Extremadura on 23 June 1959 included information on auroras seen in Germany. Its English translation is as follows:

In the Geophysical year, there were 36 magnificent magnetic-terrestrial disturbances with corresponding vortices in the ionosphere. Five aurorae were observed in northern Germany; aurora borealis is also related to the ionosphere. The most wonderful aurora borealis was observed on the night of 4–5 September 1958.

Unfortunately, the only information available on aurorae in this news article is that five aurorae were seen in the northern region of Germany and that the most marvelous occurred on 4–5 September 1958. We note that 21 aurorae were seen in Germany in 1958 according to the article shown in Sect. 3.5.

Paton et al. (1959) indicated that this aurora started at 20:00 and was widely observed, from northern countries to France. These authors noted that, although this aurora was not as brilliant as those that occurred on 11 February and 8–9 July, it was spectacular due to its active rayed bands and pulsating red surfaces. Moreover, the minimum Dst index was −302 nT, reached on 4 September at 23:00 UT, and the maximum Kp index value estimated for this storm was 9− (Schröder, 2011). No information on the influence of this geomagnetic storm was found in other newspapers.

3.7 November 1991

The last significant magnetic storm reported by Extremadura occurred in November 1991 (Fig. 6):

Over the last few days, a series of luminous phenomena have been detected in some areas of the Huesca Pyrenees, as well as in Lleida and Zaragoza, which were reported to the fire brigade as fires by some people. Indeed, these mysterious phenomena were aurora borealis, a phenomenon that is only visible every 50 years and coincides with a period of high solar activity. Ernest Guill, an astronomer at the Agrometereological Centre of Alta Segarra, explained that “the first feeling you get when you see them is that it is a fire, even when we observed the phenomenon the other night, we initially made that interpretation. But when we looked more closely we began to suspect that it was something else”.

The news noted auroras seen in the Pyrenees and in the cities of Lleida and Zaragoza (cities in northern Spain) some nights prior. The fire brigade received warnings of possible fires from many people. Thus, we can suppose that the color of the aurora was red. However, no information was provided on the start and duration of the aurora or on the impact of the geomagnetic storm.

Cliver et al. (2009) classified this storm as one of the largest geomagnetic storms based on the Dst index, which reached a minimum peak of −354 nT and a maximum Kp value of 8+. McEwen and Huang (1995) also studied this storm, showing that the aurora reached a low-latitude limit of 40° (in geomagnetic latitude) on 9 November. With regard to other newspapers that provided information about this event, for example, The Los Angeles Times reported that the aurora was visible as far south as Texas (Los Angeles Times, 1991). Regarding the social impact, Extremadura reported that many people alerted firefighters about fires.

Figure 6 News item published in Extremadura on the geomagnetic storm of November 1991. Source: Extremadura, 1991.

3.8 A suspicious aurora case in 1952

A news article published in Extremadura on 12 February 1952 mentioned the sighting of an aurora. The text indicates the following:

A phenomenon of splendor was observed in Hervás [town of Extremadura] on 6 January [1952]: the aurora preceding the Sun was formed by concentric arcs with the colors of the rainbow.

Concentric arcs are not typical of auroras, which usually display dynamic and changing arcs. Moreover, red is the most probable auroral color at latitudes as far south as Extremadura (geographic latitudes between 38 and 40°). The mention of rainbow colors is unlikely for an aurora. We have also searched for information on possible geomagnetic storms around that date, and no records on auroras were found. Therefore, based on the colors and shapes described and the fact that no more records were found, we think that it is highly improbable that this case was related to an aurora.

Figure 7 The 13-month smoothed sunspot number from 1900 until the present (green line). Vertical red lines represent dates of the occurrence of auroras as reported in Extremadura. Note that the vertical dashed line is due to the fact that news articles covering two different auroras that occurred in 1958 were published in Extremadura.

4 Conclusions

The study of solar activity is crucial due to its influence on our society. This activity manifests in phenomena such as sunspots, coronal mass ejections, and auroras. Auroras, more common at high latitudes but visible at lower latitudes during significant geomagnetic storms, are valuable for studying historical solar behavior. Historical records of auroras provide a valuable dataset for reconstructing long-term solar activity. This work recovers all of the information on auroras published in the Spanish newspaper Extremadura from 1923 to 2017.

Extremadura is a Spanish regional newspaper established in 1923, covering local to international news, with a focus on Extremadura. In addition to print, it publishes digital content across various sections. For this study, all the issues since its inception were collected digitally. A search for news items on auroras yielded 31 results. These articles are categorized into direct observations (12) and general reports (19). The former include historical aurora events from 1926 to 1991, while the latter cover scientific research, explanations of aurora formation, and reports on aurora-related scientific missions and expeditions. Figure 7 shows the relationship between the sunspot number evolution and the occurrence of the auroras reported by Extremadura. The analysis reveals that the aurora observations occurred around the maximum of solar cycles, specifically during the peaks of solar cycle 16 to 19 and solar cycle 22. We highlight the importance of auroras as valuable historical proxies for solar activity.

We scrutinize the news articles in Extremadura that encompass specific details on auroras. A condensed overview of these descriptions is presented in Table 1. A simple comparison with the works by Odenwald (2007, 2021) allows us to conclude that the coverage in the newspaper Extremadura is not out of the ordinary. Additionally, we incorporate data from other scholarly research and documentary resources on the geomagnetic disturbances that resulted with the auroras documented in Extremadura, enabling a comparison with the information derived from our principal source.