The northern lights are expected to make yet another return to Canada and these areas of the northern U.S. Saturday night, treating residents to the latest in a string of rare aurora borealis displays in the wake of a historic solar geomagnetic storm last month.
The northern lights created a spectacular show over Maine last month, and will be visible in parts ... [+]
While the northern lights are typically best viewed between September and April, the aurora borealis has provided a string of dazzling displays over the continental U.S. over the past month.
In early May, stargazers were treated to a northern lights show over, with dazzling shades of blue, green and purple visible as far south as Florida—the result of a historic geomagnetic storm caused by a plasma eruption from the sun, sparking the first National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s first alert in nearly 20 years over “moderately intense” geomagnetic disturbances.
The aurora returned earlier this month following another geomagnetic storm, which NOAA warned could also disrupt satellite communications, though when the light show returned last week it was not as widespread as it had been last month.
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Scientists predict the aurora will be visible through almost all of Canada, as well as Washington, northern Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, northern Michigan and northern Maine, with a moderate likelihood of visibility along the U.S.-Canada border (see map below). Stargazers can expect a much greater chance of catching the lights in Alaska and northern Canada Saturday night.
The best chance to catch the lights is typically within two hours of midnight, when geomagnetic activity is in full effect, according to NOAA, though multiple factors can disrupt its visibility. One of them is light pollution, the effect of city and suburban lights that leaves an afterglow in the atmosphere and a murkier view of the night sky. NOAA suggests simply to “get away from city lights.”
Cloudy skies can also throw a wrench in stargazers’ plans Saturday night. The National Weather Service predicts a largely overcast night throughout much of the northern U.S., with 73% cloud cover over northern Michigan at 11 p.m. EST, with 72% coverage in northern Minnesota, 85% in North Dakota and 73% in northern Washington, with some gaps in Idaho and Montana. New England and Upstate New York, meanwhile, are in for a clear night, according to the NWS, with the cloud cover between 3% and 5% in northern New England, and up to 40% around Buffalo, New York.
The northern lights will be visible throughout most of Canada and parts of the northern U.S. ... [+]