Northern Lights Alert: 8 States Might See Aurora Borealis Tuesday
Some states will have a chance to see the northern lights Tuesday, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, after a recent solar flare produced geomagnetic storms, bringing the colorful phenomenon to more people.
Multiple 'strong' geomagnetic storms have brought the phenomenon to more people recently.
NOAA forecast auroral activity with a Kp index of three on a scale of nine for Monday night, suggesting the aurora borealis will be more active and be seen farther away from the poles.
The northern lights will likely be more active Wednesday night because of 'minor' geomagnetic storms produced by a cooler, less dense spot on the sun's surface, with an expected Kp index of five, according to NOAA's three-day forecast.
Tuesday night's northern lights forecast is weaker than NOAA's recent projections, after a 'strong' geomagnetic storm was expected to bring auroral displays to about 21 states late Monday, as the lights were likely visible in states along the Canadian border.
A stronger aurora borealis forecast for Monday followed a solar flare emitted from the sun Friday, according to NOAA.
A view line marking a minimal opportunity to see the northern lights sweeps just below the Canadian border, with a lower likelihood forecast for parts of northeastern Washington, northern Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, northern Minnesota, northern Wisconsin and Upper Michigan. A higher chance to see the swirling northern lights displays is expected across northern Canada and Alaska. (See map below.)
Tuesday's view line.
The northern lights were forecast as far south as southern Nebraska and just north of Missouri, after the NOAA projected a Kp index of seven for Monday night. Several other states were also forecast with a higher chance to see the northern lights, including Oregon, Wyoming, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine and Massachusetts, among others.
NOAA recommends traveling to an unobstructed, high vantage point away from light pollution and facing north between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. local time. The agency noted the best seasons to see auroral activity are between the spring and fall equinoxes.
With a smartphone, NASA suggests turning on night mode, enabling long exposure times and using a tripod to maintain a steady image. Photography experts told National Geographic that, with a regular camera, a wide-angle lens, an aperture or F-stop of four or less and a tripod are recommended.
NOAA and NASA expect the northern lights to be more visible into early 2026, after the sun's 11-year cycle achieved a 'solar maximum' in 2024. This peak increases the rate of solar flares, coronal mass ejections and other solar events, each of which is responsible for producing the northern lights. Electrons from these events collide with oxygen and nitrogen in the Earth's atmosphere, causing them to become 'excited' before releasing energy in the form of colorful, swirling lights.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
E&E News
40 minutes ago
- E&E News
NWS hires won't make up for Trump cuts, meteorologists say
New hiring efforts at the National Weather Service won't be enough to overcome staffing shortages and potential risks to human lives this summer, meteorologists warned Wednesday at a panel hosted by Democratic Washington Sen. Maria Cantwell. NOAA will hire around 125 new employees at the NWS, the agency said in an announcement first reported Monday by CNN. But nearly 600 employees have departed the NWS over the last few months, after the Trump administration fired probationary federal employees and offered buyouts and early retirements. That means the new hires will account for less than 25 percent of the total losses. Advertisement 'A quarter of the staff are not going to do the job when, let's just say, both hurricane and fire risks are increasing,' Cantwell said during Wednesday's panel. '[The Trump administration's] approach in response to this has been a flimsy Band-Aid over a very massive cut.'
USA Today
an hour ago
- USA Today
Trump budget cuts spark new hurricane season fears: 'A bad miss'
Trump budget cuts spark new hurricane season fears: 'A bad miss' A Miami TV meteorologist asked viewers to call Congress about NOAA's budget, fearing it harms hurricane forecasting. He's not the only one worried. Show Caption Hide Caption NOAA, FEMA cuts will impact hurricane season, experts warn The Trump administration's budget cuts at NOAA and FEMA will have an adverse affect on how the U.S. responds to hurricanes, experts warn. Meteorologist John Morales, a 34-year veteran TV weatherman in Miami, has urged his viewers to call their elected officials in Washington D.C., saying he fears federal government cuts will jeopardize the accuracy of hurricane forecasts this summer. After playing a clip of an August 2019 forecast where he reassured viewers that even though Hurricane Dorian appeared bound for Florida's East Coast it would turn northward and skirt the state, Morales said: "Confidently I went on TV and told you it's going to turn; you don't need to worry, it's going to turn." "I'm here to tell you that I'm not sure I can do that this year, because of the cuts, the gutting, the sledgehammering attack on science in general," Morale told his viewers at WTVJ, an ABC affiliate. "The quality of the forecasts is being degraded." More than 550 people left the service this year through rounds of probationary firings, incentivized departures and retirement offers by the Trump administration. As a result, more than a dozen weather service offices have reduced or eliminated the daily collection of data via weather balloons, while others shut down their overnight shifts and are sharing forecast duties among other offices. Asked to respond to Morales' plea, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, parent agency of the weather service, including the National Hurricane Center, defended the center and said it's taking steps to fill some of the staffing gaps at weather service offices around the country. The hurricane center "has a sufficient number of forecasters to fill mission-critical operational shifts during the 2025 hurricane season," and remains dedicated to its mission, said Erica Grow Cei, a meteorologist and public affairs specialist with the weather service. Although earlier in the year the federal firings of probationary employees at NOAA included two flight directors and a flight engineer with the agency's hurricane hunters program in Lakeland, Florida, those positions were later restored, shortly after the White House learned of the cuts from the news media. At the weather service, NOAA is conducting short-term temporary duty assignments and has offered reassignment opportunities to try to move people around to the most understaffed offices. Cei said the service also will soon advertise a number of permanent, mission-critical field positions despite an ongoing hiring freeze to "further stabilize frontline operations." 'A missed forecast' possible James Franklin, a retired former branch chief for hurricane specialists at the hurricane center, said he doesn't think anybody knows yet what will happen with forecasts this summer. "A lot depends on what happens with the budget going forward," Franklin said. However, by reducing the amount of critical data gathered in balloon launches in places across the country, "you increase the chances that model forecasts are going to have a bad miss." "It doesn't matter whether the sites missed are in Miami, Key West or Des Moines, Iowa," he said. "The point is you could miss data in the Midwest" that helps forecast features in the atmosphere that help steer hurricanes around as they approach the U.S. When they pass through an area with less coverage from the equipment launched in the balloons, the forecast might change a little bit and get degraded, he said. Instead of accurately predicting a storm striking Florida, for example, the forecast could change and turn the storm "out to sea because of a missed forecast." Weather service staffing shortages Weather service staffing already was tight, even before the Trump administration's cuts, former NOAA staff members have said, but in some weather service offices, the vacancies have been dramatic. "NOAA is still critically understaffed," said Brian LaMarre, who recently retired as meteorologist-in-charge of the Ruskin/Tampa weather service office and founded the consulting business Inspire Weather. Among the 122 forecast offices, almost a third are without a meteorologist-in-charge, LaMarre said. "Now that hurricane season is here, a lot more people are starting to hear about the challenges." Nationwide, more than a third of the offices are considered "critically understaffed," with vacancy rates of 20% or more, USA TODAY previously reported. Morales said the weather service offices in Central and South Florida are 20-40% understaffed. "What you need to do is call your representatives and make sure these cuts are stopped," said Morales, one of a number of meteorologists worried the widespread staffing shortages. "Never have we faced the combustible mix of a lack of meteorological data and the less accurate forecasts that follow, with an elevated propensity for the rapidly intensifying hurricanes of the manmade climate change era," he wrote in a post on June 1, the opening day of the annual Atlantic hurricane season. He quoted a letter penned earlier this year by five former weather service directors who said they fear a "needless loss of life" from the cuts. What happened with Hurricane Dorian? After pummeling the Bahamas as a Category Five hurricane, with winds of more than 170 mph, Dorian skirted Florida, Georgia and South Carolina, stirring up rough surf and eroding beaches. It eventually made landfall over Cape Hatteras, North Carolina on September 6, 2019. Although most of its worst winds were to the east, Dorian raked the Outer Banks with wind gusts of over 100 mph, before returning to the Atlantic Ocean, the hurricane center reported. The hurricane made another landfall as a strong, post-tropical cyclone in Nova Scotia on September 7. Before and after: Incredible images reveal Hurricane Dorian's destruction in the Bahamas Dinah Voyles Pulver, a national correspondent for USA TODAY, writes about hurricanes, violent weather and other environmental issues. Reach her at dpulver@ or @dinahvp on Bluesky or X or dinahvp.77 on Signal.
an hour ago
Air quality alerts from wildfire smoke as storms aim for the South
ABC News Chief Meteorologist Ginger Zee has the latest on the air quality alerts across the Midwest caused by smoke from the Canadian wildfires and the severe storms possible across the South.
