Ever wanted to see the Northern Lights? Sky watchers could be in for a stunning show Friday night. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued a rare geometric storm watch — the first in nearly 20 years. The watch starts Friday and lasts all weekend.
WCCO Radio Meteorologist Paul Douglas says this is one of the biggest storms on the sun since 2005 will make the Northern Lights visible over an unusually large portion of the United States. That'll be especially true in the northern part of the U.S.
"Late tonight, early tomorrow morning, that's when it peaks," Douglas explained. "The best odds of seeing the Northern Lights and it may be the best chance we've had in many, many years. I would give it a shot."
Typically, the Northern Lights or Aurora Borealis, is better seen further north towards the magnetic poles (Aurora Australis for the Southern Hemisphere). During major geomagnetic storms these ovals expand away from the poles such that aurora can be seen over most of the United States.
The best chances to see the northern lights would be after 9:00 p.m. into early Saturday morning. There's good news for those in the Upper Midwest, where skies should be mostly clear overnight. Douglas says on the WCCO Morning News that this is a unique situation.
"It's a huge storm on the sun," Douglas says. It's the first time we've had a G4 (magnetic storm) since 2005. So the conditions in the ionosphere will be ripe to see the Northern Lights as far south as possibly Des Moines. Certainly here in the Twin Cities."
NOAA said the sun produced strong solar flares beginning Wednesday, resulting in five outbursts of plasma capable of disrupting satellites in orbit and power grids here on Earth. Each eruption — known as a coronal mass ejection — can contain billions of tons of solar plasma.
NOAA is calling this an unusual event, pointing out that the flares seem to be associated with a sunspot that’s 16 times the diameter of Earth. That also could mean more than just a light show. They can do damage. An extreme geomagnetic storm in 2003 took out power in Sweden and damaged power transformers in South Africa.
The latest storm could produce northern lights as far south in the U.S. as Alabama and Northern California, according to NOAA.
NOAA also has tips on how to best observe the phenomenon here.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.