CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO)-- People in the Chicago area and possible as far away as Central Illinois could see the Northern Lights Saturday night, weather permitting.
Accuweather Meterologist Danielle Knittle said this space weather event is caused by a very strong coronal mass ejection, a large solar flare sending a powerful geomagnetic storm and containing electrically charged particles hurtling toward earth.
"Those particles-a lot of that dust and little bit other debris mixed into that does help to lead to the various different bright colors we see when they do interact with the earth's atmosphere and it looks like this event is one of the stronger ones that we've seen in quite time."
She said the best viewing provided there’s not too much cloud coverage would be away from the light pollution of a city, but she noted this one is so powerful that you might see a faint glow low on northern horizon even from a downtown high-rise.
There’s a possibility the lights will be visible on Sunday night as well.
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