These States Could See the Northern Lights This Weekend

There will be plenty of opportunities to see the northern lights next year. due to the sun being at solar maximum. One of these opportunities will appear on the evening of November 8-9 thanks to a solar flare launched on the Sun earlier in the week. This won’t light up the sky like some of auroras seen earlier this year but for some people in the US it should still be a good show.

For now The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts that the northern lights will be visible in the northernmost states of the United States. These include Washington, Idaho, Montana, Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan. Residents of Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire may also be in luck. NOAA says the geomagnetic storm causing this aurora event is a G1 or G2 storm, which is on the lower end of the spectrum.

These northern lights were caused by a coronal mass ejection, which NOAA discovered November 7th.. The solar flare that caused it was assessed as an M3 class flare, which is on the weaker side of the spectrum. However, enough of it will reach Earth for the northern lights to move a little further south than usual. Since the storm is expected to last for several days, there is a chance that the northern lights will reach a little further south than predicted. So even if you’re a little outside of NOAA’s forecast area, it can’t hurt to take a look. You can even catch a meteor from a meteor shower.

The M3-class flare occurred just a day after a much larger and more powerful X2.3-class flare erupted. discovered November 6. This flare caused some radio frequency problems, but did not result in more active northern lights. If this flare had hit Earth directly, it would have pushed the northern lights much further south. recent sighting of the northern lights that lit up half of the US originated from an X1.8 class flare.

The Northern Lights are caused by coronal mass ejections from the Sun that interact with the Earth’s geomagnetic field. The interaction of solar material and radiation with the Earth’s magnetic field causes the sky to light up beautifully. The more powerful and intense the coronal mass ejection, the more intense the northern lights become. Since it extends into the northern US, it is on the lower half of the scale, but still larger than what is typically seen.

How to see the northern lights?

From refrigerators to iPhones, our experts are here to help make the world a little easier.

If you are in an area where there will be northern lights, try to get as far away from the light pollution as possible and simply look up towards the northern sky. Light pollution makes it much more difficult to see the northern lights, especially in the southernmost parts of the aurora where they will be weakest. The darker the sky, the better.

Photographing the aurora is a little more difficult, especially with a smartphone. You need to point your phone at the sky and turn on night mode to maximize your exposure time and get the best results. The further north you go, the better your results.