After filling up on turkey, stuffing and a couple of slices of pie, Mother Nature will have an aerial fireworks show for you Friday night.
A solar storm is forecast to reach Earth and produce colorful northern lights in the Northern Hemisphere.
The phenomenon, also known as the aurora borealis, should be visible on Black Friday in parts of the northern United States, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The northern lights are courtesy of a coronal mass ejection hurtling toward Earth, which prompted NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center to issue a geomagnetic storm watch for Thursday and Friday. The forecast storm won’t quite have the oomph of the G4-level whopper that came along Oct. 10, but it should still unveil the auroras across the Northern Hemisphere.
Here’s what to know about the northern lights and how to see them on Thanksgiving night in the U.S.
Northern lights: Amid solar maximum, auroras should be more visible across the U.S.
Where will the auroras be visible?
The auroras are best seen around the magnetic poles of the Northern and Southern hemispheres in Europe, Asia and North America. In the U.S., Alaska is well known to have the best viewing opportunities for the northern lights.
The auroras may become visible in some northern and upper Midwest states from New York to Idaho, according to the Space Weather Prediction Center’s experimental Aurora view line. The visibility for viewing also will depend on local weather conditions and city lights.
The northern lights may also be visible low on the horizon in several cities, according to the University of Alaska at Fairbanks Geophysical Institute website, which tracks the phenomenon.
Those include:
- Boise, Idaho
- Cheyenne, Wyoming
- Lincoln, Nebraska
- Indianapolis
- Annapolis, Maryland
Will the northern lights be visible in Bucks County, Philadelphia?
While the auroras will be visible as far south as Annapolis, folks north of there may have the best chance to see the northern lights Friday. The forecast is calling for mostly clear skies. You will want to bring a jacket as lows are expected to drop into the upper 20s.
When is the best time to see the northern lights?
As a rule of thumb, if the weather is clear, the best aurora is usually visible within an hour or two of midnight, according to NOAA. And if it looks as if the northern lights will flare up near you, you should get away from cities and travel to dark locations free from light pollution so you can best see them.
The agency also maintains an aurora dashboard that should help skygazers track the phenomenon.
What causes the northern lights
The auroras are a natural light display in Earth’s sky. The phenomenon is caused when electrically charged particles from space enter Earth’s atmosphere and collide with molecules and gases like oxygen and nitrogen, causing the atmospheric particles to gain energy. To return to their normal state, the particles release that energy in the form of light, according to the University of Alaska at Fairbanks.
As auroras form, Earth’s magnetic field redirects the particles toward the poles through a process that produces a stunning display of rays, spirals and flickers that have fascinated humans for millennia.
Why northern lights activity is increasing
Now that the sun is at the height of its 11-year cycle, the increase in solar activity has more frequently fueled “space weather” that produces the right conditions for northern lights to flourish.
Regions of intense magnetic activity known as sunspots are proliferating on the solar surface and are capable of releasing intense bursts of radiation resulting in solar flares that can hurtle toward Earth at the speed of light, according to NOAA. Some of the flares can be accompanied by coronal mass ejections, or clouds of plasma and charged particles, that emerge from the sun’s outermost atmosphere, the corona.
These ejections can collide with Earth’s magnetosphere, the barrier protecting humanity from the harshest effects of space weather, to produce geomagnetic storms that unleash spectacular views of the northern lights in parts of the country where auroras are not often visible.
What’s more, because NASA expects the solar maximum to continue into 2025, aurora chasers should have plenty more opportunities to catch the northern lights.
