According to NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center, the northern lights could be visible as far south as Idaho and New York on Friday, April 17, and into early Saturday morning. The states with the best shot include Alaska, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, the Dakotas, Washington, and Wisconsin. A second tier of states—Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Vermont, and Wyoming—also have a chance, conditions permitting. A new moon on Friday means darker skies, which helps.
Here’s what’s actually happening. The sun’s outermost layer, the corona, developed what’s called a coronal hole—a region where the sun’s magnetic fields open up and release fast-moving solar wind directly into space. That wind is now headed toward Earth. According to Live Science, those high-speed winds can interact with slower solar winds ahead of them, causing charged particles to pile up in a shock zone called a corotating interaction region, or CIR. That buildup hits harder than standard solar wind and can make the resulting aurora more intense.
The Northern Lights Could Soon Show Up in Surprising Places. Here’s How to Catch Them.
When those particles reach Earth, most get deflected by the planet’s magnetic field. The ones that don’t get funneled toward the poles, where they collide with atoms and molecules in the atmosphere, heat them up, and produce the light show. NOAA is forecasting moderate G2 geomagnetic storm conditions starting around 5 p.m. EDT Friday and running until roughly 2 a.m. EDT Saturday. G2 storms can also cause minor to moderate radio blackouts, so there’s that.
The northern lights have been putting on an unusually active show over the past couple of years, largely due to the sun approaching solar maximum, the peak of its roughly 11-year activity cycle. Events like this are becoming less surprising and more frequent, which is either exciting or mildly alarming, depending on your relationship with space weather.
If you’re planning to look, NOAA’s aurora dashboard has live updates, and space weather forecasts can change fast. Get away from city lights, give your eyes time to adjust, and check the forecast before you drive anywhere.
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