Out on the surface of the sun, a huge geomagnetic storm raged this weekend, causing Coronal Mass Ejections (that is, solar flares) to hit earth. There’s nothing to worry about (yet) according to scientists—solar flares hit earth all the time—but the strength of this rare event will provide many in relatively southern locations the chance to see the aurora borealis—commonly called the Northern Lights—this week.
The dazzling nighttime display of color was visible with the naked eye over the weekend in Washington, Wyoming, and Maine, and could be detected as far south as Texas if you had a long exposure camera pointed at the sky. The celestial display might continue throughout the week, so here’s how to maximize your chances of seeing it.
How to see the Northern Lights this week
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Whether you’ll be able to see the Northern Lights this week is a crapshoot. Science isn’t great at predicting geomagnetic storm activity precisely in the longer term—we can tell when a specific solar flare will hit us about a day in advance—but according to University of Alaska Fairbanks aurora forecast, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday of this week might offer up the chance to check out the phenomenon, provided if you’re far enough north, and if there are no clouds in the sky or other light pollution, as sunspot activity is expected to be relatively high on those days.
Generally, the Northern Lights are visible at latitudes between 60 and 75 degrees, making Alaska the only place in the United States where you can check them out regularly. But these are strange times: we’re heading into a period of increased sunspot activity, and this weekend’s big eruptions of solar plasma could signal that there is more to come. Or not. You really can’t tell what the sun is going to do.
Thanksgiving weekend may offer another Northern Lights display
Auroral activity is measured on a nine-point scale. This weekend, the scale got up to 6. On Thanksgiving weekend—between Nov. 22 and 25—three days of level 5 auroral activity are expected, so you might get a chance to see dancing, colored lights in the sky around the holidays. (If you really want to increase your chances, there’s nothing to do but go to Alaska, Canada, or Iceland.)
2024 and 2025 could be a huge years for spotting Northern Lights
The amount of geomagnetic activity on the sun changes with the number of sunspots, and sunspot activity peaks every 11 years. The top of the current cycle is in 2025. Whether the current activity is a random occurrence or indicates a more impactful “sunspot season” remains to be seen. But before you get too excited, while the Northern Lights are definitely cool-looking, they can potentially cause serious problems.
Solar flares: Nature’s most beautiful disaster
When a large enough solar flare hits the earth, it can be very bad. In 1859, the largest geomagnetic storm ever recorded hit Earth and lit up the sky so brightly that people thought dawn had come. It disrupted telegraphs all over the world, and crashed power systems too. That wasn’t so big a deal in the 1800s because the world didn’t rely on communications and electricity the way it does now, but imagine a powerful solar flare fries the world’s electric system, causes satellites to fall from orbit, and shuts down global communication completely. Things could get pretty bad.
There’s not much you can do to prevent a solar flare from hitting earth, but you can prepare for this extremely possible, even likely occurrence. Check out Lifehacker’s guide to how to prepare for a solar storm for more information.