Northern Lights – Boston news, weather, sports

Wow! What a sight last night, especially around 7:00-7:40 p.m. when an outbreak of the Northern Lights was clearly visible in southern New England. A multitude of charged particles emitted from the Sun, racing toward Earth in the solar wind and interacting with our magnetosphere, calmed the geomagnetic storm. The interaction with these charged particles and the “excitation” of the oxygen and nitrogen in our atmosphere produced the vivid colors we saw.

On a scale of 1-5 the G scale was at 4. On the Kp index scale of 0-9 it was close to 8.7 last night! Normally our chance of seeing the Northern Lights is around 7+, so getting closer to 9 is something different! Luckily we had clear skies for that too.

Tonight the Kp index is back at 5, so the chances of seeing the Northern Lights again are much lower.

The clear skies, which allowed for great views of the Northern Lights, also made for a cool night as radiative cooling took over. Today we'll start in the 30s for many, with even a light frost in some colder cities. Today, however, we're warming up quickly and are back in the 60s this afternoon.

Sunshine is winning today and tomorrow and we will increase the numbers to almost 70 tomorrow. Still, it will be quite windy, with gusts of 25-35 mph. Cooler air sets in on Saturday night.

Sunday will be cooler, in the 50s, as clouds move in and a few showers are possible. Heavy rain is possible from Sunday evening into Monday morning.

Tuesday through Thursday next week looks cool, with snow in the evening in higher areas of northern New England and northern New York.