Strong solar storm brings chance of Northern Lights in Central Indiana

A ‘Severe Geomagnetic Storm Watch’ has been issued by The National Weather Service’s Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC). This is the first time this watch has been issued since January 2005, nearly 20 years. The northern lights may be visible over much of the northern half of the country and possibly as far south as Alabama to northern California.

Just remember that these are difficult to see. The elevated northern lights forecast is because this geomagnetic storm is much higher than normal. A G4 geomagnetic storm is rare.

Several strong flares have been observed over the last few days. They are coming from a big cluster of sunspots which, according to NOAA, is 16 times greater than the diameter of earth. Additionally, around a half dozen coronal mass ejections have been seen and will persist in burst through the weekend. These are clouds of solar plasma and magnetic fields.

For us here in central Indiana, head away from the city lights to have the best potential to view this. However, don’t get your hopes up too high. While the geomagnetic activity is highly elevated, cloud cover could be a problem for us and they will increase after Midnight. Your best chance to see this here locally, if you can, would likely be before 2 AM on Saturday.

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