Don’t Miss Out: Northern Lights to Shine Bright Monday and Tuesday Night

Residents of the northern United States, don’t hesitate to brave the cold outside this Monday or Tuesday evening to catch a glimpse of the breathtaking Northern Lights. NOAA currently predicts that a geomagnetic storm will impact Earth on Monday and Tuesday, which will push the Northern Lights toward the northern United States.

This aurora arrives on Earth thanks to a coronal mass ejection from the sun on December 6. Coronal mass ejections are massive explosions of plasma and other solar material that are forcibly expelled from the star. These events occur quite regularly when the sun is at its solar maximumwhich will happen until the end of the year and until 2026. The M8 class solar flare is expected to hit Earth in the early hours of December 9.

How far will the dawn go?

NOAA predicts the aurora will be visible in Washington, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Minnesota and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. It can also be visible in Oregon, Nebraska, Wyoming, Iowa, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine, if you can get high enough and look north. Far northern Indiana, Illinois and New York could also see some action. As always, Alaska and Canada offer the best views.

Tuesday night’s aurora will be weaker than Monday night’s, but it will still be widely visible in the same list of states.

This series of aurora borealis is not expected to be as far-reaching as the massive aurora that hit in early November. These were caused by class X coronal mass ejections, which are a level higher than the class M that are expected to hit Earth on Monday and Tuesday. Aurora forecasts are a lot like weather forecasts, so they can change depending on whether the geomagnetic storm is weaker or stronger than its current forecast.

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Tips for viewing the Northern Lights

Your standard aurora viewing advice all applies to this one. You’ll want to go as high as possible and face north to get the best view of the Northern Lights from your location. The further you go from the Canadian border, the higher you will have to go to see it. You’ll also want to get out of the city and suburbs to minimize light pollution.

The bad news is that the December full moon, which was also a super moonthat was only a few days ago, so it’s still almost full in the night sky. Light pollution from the Moon will almost certainly harm your ability to see the Northern Lights, especially if you’re in one of the southernmost states in the NOAA forecast zone.

If you decide to go, keep an eye out for meteors as well. The Geminid meteor shower began on December 4 and approaches its peak on December 13-14. So you might see a few shooting stars while you search for the aurora.