2y ago

Strong aurora borealis in the northern US this thursday

www.gi.alaska.edu Aurora Forecast | Geophysical Institute

Forecasts of auroral activity, updated daily.

The Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska Fairbanks is predicting a geomagnetic storm for Wednesday and Thursday of this week (July 12th & 13th). Strong northern lights may be visible between 10 PM and 2 AM in parts of the northern US, especially from points of high elevation, clear views of the northern horizon and low light polution.

12 comments

Aurora Borealis? At this time of year? At this time of day? In this part of the country?

I saw the northern lights for the first time in MN this past winter (just moved here and out to the country). It was breathtaking. Something I've wanted to see my entire life and it did not disappoint. Makes me want to go further North to see it better.
- Me too! Happened to see it in Connecticut when I was a teenager, totally took me by surprise. Space weather apps were definitely not a thing at the time.

I have been chasing Aurora for quite a few years. From my experience forecasts this far out are rarely accurate. Take this with a large grain of salt.

For those not in the US, is longitude really important when talking about where the northern lights are visible? Most places I've seen that they give notices they use US states as references of latitude, but it's not mentioned if that is really important or you can see them from anywhere in the world, as far as it's night time and there are no clouds of course
- Yeah, totally - the longitude doesn't really matter, it's the latitude that's important. Auroras usually occur between 10 and 20 degrees from the geomagnetic pole. This does bias North America and Greenland a bit, since the geomagnetic pole is shifted toward Canada relative to the geographic north pole. But, if you take a look at the University of Alaska link I posted, they do publish forecast maps for Europe and the north and south poles as well as the US.
  
  Thanks for the reassurance :)

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