The northern lights will dance across the night sky over the next 2 nights. Here's when to look up.
Over the next two nights, a widespread display of the northern lights will dance across the northern U.S., including Philadelphia, and the lights could dip as far as Alabama and northern California.
A severe G4 geomagnetic storm (level 4 of 5) is set to hit our atmosphere Sunday, June 1, and linger through Monday, June 2.
The best times to catch a glimpse of the lights are 9 p.m. Sunday through 5 a.m. Monday, with midnight to 5 a.m. being more ideal due to the waxing crescent moon setting at 1:16 a.m. Monday.
CBS Philadelphia
As always, you will need to be away from bright city lights. To locate where the lights are, it is helpful to use your cell phone to scan the sky. The colors will be clearer as the display begins. Here are some photos I took last October in Montgomery County.
CBS Philadelphia
CBS Philadelphia
CBS Philadelphia
We missed the historical aurora borealis last May because of bad weather. That was a rare level G-5 extreme geomagnetic storm, and the colorful lights were seen overhead as far south as the Caribbean.
This time, skies will be mainly clear, giving us the best chance in decades to view the dancing display.
According to NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center, the sun shot a powerful explosion of plasma known as a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) toward Earth on Friday.
Currently, a level 4 geomagnetic storm is expected, with the possibility for another rare G5 (extreme) geomagnetic storm. The intensity will be clearer as the CME, which is traveling at speeds up to 1 million mph, gets closer to Earth.
The stronger the geomagnetic storm, the greater the chance of seeing northern lights. It is during these rare severe G4 and extreme G5 storms that the celestial show can dip well into the mid-section of the nation.
CBS Philadelphia
Over the past several weeks, our sun has been busy with a constant stream of M and X-class solar flares. Those are bursts of electromagnetic radiation erupting from the surface of the sun. They are rated from B-class, C-class, M-class and X-class flares, with X-class being the strongest. X-class flares are the rarest and 10 times stronger than M-class flares, which are 10 times stronger than C-class flares, etc.
We are currently in what is known as solar cycle #25. Solar cycles are 11 years long, and it just so happens that 2024 to 2025 is the peak of this cycle. It also has the highest activity seen in years, with numerous X-class flares and geomagnetic storms.
The strongest geomagnetic storm in recorded history is known as the "Carrington Event." It took place in September 1859 at the peak of what was solar cycle #10.
The solar radiation that reached Earth was so intense that telegraph lines caught on fire, and the aurora borealis was visible worldwide. A Carrington-type storm is expected every 100 to 200 years, making us long overdue. The incoming geomagnetic storm won't be that strong, but the giant sunspot AR3664 producing this storm is as large as the sunspot that emitted the Carrington Event storm.
AR3664 is being watched closely by space agencies because if a geomagnetic storm of that intensity hit Earth today, there would be major disruptions to communications, electric grids, commerce, travel and the internet, among other things.
Stay with the NEXT Weather Alert Team for updates on this geomagnetic storm and what is expected to be a very active year ahead with more chances to see the magical dancing lights of the aurora borealis.
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