These States Could See the Northern Lights This Weekend

The next year is going to offer plenty of opportunities to see the aurora borealis, thanks to the sun being in its solar maximum. One of those chances is happening the evenings of Nov. 8-9, thanks to a solar flare launched from the sun earlier in the week. It won’t light up the skies like some of the auroras seen earlier this year, but it should still be a good show for some folks in the US. 

For now, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is forecasting that the aurora borealis will be visible across the northernmost states in the US. Those include Washington, Idaho, Montana, both Dakotas, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan. People in Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire might get lucky as well. NOAA says the geomagnetic storm causing this instance of the northern lights is around a G1- or G2-level storm, which is on the lower end of the spectrum. 

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This aurora borealis comes courtesy of a coronal mass ejection that NOAA detected on Nov. 7. The solar flare that launched it was measured as an M3-class flare, which is on the weaker side. However, enough of it will hit Earth to drive the northern lights a little further south than they’d typically go. Since the storm is expected to last multiple days, there’s a chance the northern lights will reach a little further south than predicted. So, even if you’re a little outside of NOAA’s prediction area, it won’t hurt to take a look. You may even see a meteor from a meteor shower.

The M3-class flare came just one day after a much larger, more powerful X2.3-class flare was detected on Nov. 6. That flare caused some radio frequency issues but didn’t result in a more active aurora borealis. If that flare had hit the Earth right, it would’ve driven the aurora borealis much further south. The recent sighting of the northern lights that lit up half the US came from an X1.8-class flare. 

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The aurora borealis is caused by coronal mass ejections from the sun that interact with the geomagnetic field on Earth. The interaction between the solar material and radiation with Earth’s magnetic field causes the sky to light up beautifully. The more powerful and intense the coronal mass ejection is, the more intense the aurora borealis becomes. With it stretching down into the northern US, it’s on the bottom half of the scale, but it’s still more than one would typically see. 

How do I see the aurora borealis?

If you’re in the zone where the northern lights will be, get away from light pollution as much as possible and simply look upward toward the northern sky. Light pollution makes it much more difficult to see the aurora borealis, especially at the southernmost reaches of the aurora, where it’ll be the weakest. The darker the sky, the better. 

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Photographing the aurora is a little more difficult, especially on a smartphone. You’ll want to point the phone at the sky and turn on night mode to increase the exposure time as much as you can to get the best results. The further north you go, the better your results.