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Will the Northern Lights be visible again tonight? See current forecast

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Will the Northern Lights be visible again tonight? See current forecast

If you missed the beautiful red, blue and purple lights that lit up the night sky on Thursday, Friday evening may offer you another chance.

The National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Center said the strong geomagnetic storm watch (G3) would be visible Friday evening.

“The underlying cause of this activity is the decay as it flies over Earth, called coronal mass ejection, or CME for short,” Shawn Dahl, service coordinator for NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center, told USA TODAY. “What this is is a discharge and explosion of solar material and strong magnetic fields, and in this case it happened on the evening of October 8th and it arrived here in full force yesterday morning.”

“And there's a lot of activity and severe storms throughout the day with the type of response that there has been,” he added.

Anyone interested in seeing the Northern Lights should check the Prediction Center website for updates and conditions.

While the lights may not be as bright as Thursday night's show, many people will still be able to see the picturesque phenomenon in parts of the country.

According to the University of Alaska's Aurora Forecast Tracker, the Northern Lights could be visible low on the horizon from Seattle, Des Moines, Chicago, Cleveland and Boston between 8:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. ET.

What are the Northern Lights?

According to Space.com, the Northern Lights occur when energetic particles from the sun reach Earth's upper atmosphere at speeds of up to 45 million miles per hour. The Earth's magnetic field redirects particles toward the poles through a process that creates a breathtaking display of rays, spirals and flickers that has fascinated humans for millennia.

Why do we see different colors in the northern lights?

Dahl explains that the molecules in our atmosphere play a role in what colors appear in the sky.

“As the aurora develops its interaction in deeper layers of the atmosphere, it often interacts with types of molecules that emit green light,” he said. “Red has not been seen recently because this usually happens much higher, almost twice the altitude at which we see the green-colored aurora. This is simply due to the different energy and particle states up there.”

Will we get a glimpse of the Northern Lights again?

Skygazers, you're in luck! Dahl says it's likely the northern lights will be visible again this year and in future years.

“It is very likely that the aurora will develop again before the end of the year,” he said. “We're not done yet. We’re going to be on this solar maximum rollercoaster for the rest of this year, all of next year, and even 2026.”

Contributor: Eric Lagatta, USA TODAY.

Ahjané Forbes is a reporter on USA TODAY's National Trending Team. Ahjané covers breaking news, auto recalls, crime, health, lottery and public policy stories. Send her an email at [email protected]. Follow her on Instagram, Threads and X (Twitter) @forbesfineest.

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