Northern lights could illuminate Coachella Valley skies Saturday night. Here's where to go
A rare and powerful solar storm reached Earth on Friday night, offering Californians — from San Diego and Big Bear Lake to Yucaipa and Hemet — a rare opportunity to witness the aurora. Coachella Valley residents may even get another chance to marvel at the northern lights illuminating the night sky on Saturday.
"It will again be possible tonight," said National Weather Service Meteorologist Casey Oswant. "It looks like the strength of this event is going to be similar as it was last night, so we might see (the northern lights) as far south."
However, Oswant said that the northern lights may not persist throughout the entire night, but instead appear intermittently. "It does depend on the time of night that people are looking, but it sounds like it'll be possible," she said.
For example, on Friday night, some witnessed the northern lights between 10:30 p.m. and closer to midnight. With clear skies forecasted on Saturday, fingers crossed that desert dwellers get to join in on the excitement.
Where and when am I most likely to see the northern lights tonight?
All Coachella Valley residents have a chance of seeing the rare event from home Saturday, but if they want a higher chance, they should head as north and as far away from city lights as they're willing to go.
AccuWeather senior meteorologist Tom Kines told USA TODAY that peak visibility time Saturday night will be between 9 p.m. and midnight, with some chance until 2 a.m. The best views will be in dark areas away from the light pollution of cities, he said, though some reported seeing the auroras Friday night from metro areas like Milwaukee and Detroit.
What is causing the northern lights this weekend?
NASA describes an aurora as an "intricate dance of articles and magnetism between the Sun and the Earth," and the spectacle is being caused by a geomagnetic storm that erupted from a sunspot cluster on the sun.
These eruptions are mostly happening at a large, complex sunspot cluster, NOAA'S Space Weather Prediction Center said. Sunspots, which increase and decrease on an 11-year cycle, are areas where the magnetic field is about 2,500 times stronger than Earth's.
The storm was unusually strong — classified as "extreme" (or a G5) storm, the highest level, the Space Weather Prediction Center said Friday evening. It's the first G5 storm to hit our planet since 2003.
The geomagnetic's storm's effects are likely to persist through Sunday.
"There have been reports of power grid irregularities and degradation to high-frequency communications and GPS," the Space Weather Prediction Center said in a Saturday morning update.
Previous reporting by USA TODAY was used in this story.
Jennifer Cortez covers education in the Coachella Valley. Reach her at jennifer.cortez@desertsun.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Northern lights could illuminate Palm Springs area skies Saturday night
