PARTS OF THE AMERICAN NORTHERN MIDWEST TO GET MAJOR AURORA BOREALIS SHOW TONIGHT
I’ve seen the “northern lights,” or aurora borealis in person only a couple of times. Once was barely worth mentioning, it was just the very edge of being visible. Yet I felt pretty excited about it at the time. But the second and last time I saw the northern lights, I was driving east thru the Canadian Rockies in the middle of the night and saw a light show that dominated the night sky, and lasted over 20 minutes. To say it was stunning doesn’t do the memory justice and this was two decades ago. But that spectacular memory only makes me jealous, as I won’t be anywhere in the American Northern Midwest tonight to see another huge natural light show.
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TWO DAYS AGO, THE SUN SHOT OUT A LARGE CORONAL MASS AT EARTH, AND NOW IT ARRIVES
So where exactly will the light show be tonight? That’s impossible to predict, given where the sun’s ejected mass will hit our atmosphere could be anywhere, and who knows where the clouds will be any given minute? No one ever really does. But we do know that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Weather Prediction Center has issued a “geomagnetic storm warning” for tonight. And how did they make this prediction? Because our sun, Sol, issued a coronal mass ejection on Saturday, and its arrival time is tonight, two days later. And that means aurora borealis for many to enjoy.
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MICHIGAN, MINNESOTA AND WISCONSIN COULD HAVE THE BEST AURORA BOREALIS SHOW
So far, the forecast is that the sun’s ejected mass will start offering a visual spectacle in the sky sometime tonight between 10pm and 2am. And while some folks in other areas may get lucky and see some of it, the best places to be are projected as Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin. But don’t forget, with beauty also comes the beast, and a geomagnetic storm warning like this also means there can be issues with power systems and communications.
