Posted on 09/28/2020 1:34:58 PM PDT by nickcarraway
In a rare atmospheric shift, Earth’s seasonal aurora borealis, otherwise known as the Northern Lights, will be visible to some northern states in the contiguous United States.
What are the Northern Lights?
The Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) has forecast a trend of geomagnetic storms, also called solar storms, to continue through Tuesday, September 29. These celestial weather patterns, like a shockwave of particles from the sun, bombard Earth’s magnetic shield. The interplay between those solar particles with Earth’s atoms and molecules of oxygen, nitrogen and other elements causes a dazzling dance of lights in green, indigo and violet.
Where are Northern Lights visible?
It’s usually only residents of the Arctic Circle, such as Finland, Norway, Sweden, and parts of Canada, as well as Alaska, who typically enjoy the celestial phenomenon. But thanks to the uncommon strength of the current solar storms, the SWPC has predicted visibility “on the horizon” as far south as the American Midwest, northern Idaho and Iowa, and most of Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, New York, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin.
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Likewise. Saw them once in the Sierra Foothills near Auburn, CA. For those not familiar with CA geography, that’s about a third or a little more down the state. Super rare this far south. Super cool
I saw them in southern West Virginia (on the Kentucky border) in the very late 1950s or very early ‘60s. They were the green shimmering curtains. An incredible sight to see. Have not seen them since.
I’ve seen them in southern Michigan when I was a kid. Same in the Upper Peninsula. Those were incredible. As I recall it was on July 4. A free fireworks show from God.
I’ve caught sight of the northern lights twice in southern Missouri. The first time they made the sky look red so it looked like there was a huge fire to the north. The second time I actually saw the ‘moving curtains’. They must have been tremendous farther north.
When was this? I remember seeing something very similar in northwest Illinois maybe fifteen years ago.
South of Interstate 20 between 1980 to 1985?
When was this? I remember seeing something very similar in northwest Illinois maybe fifteen years ago.
No.
I strongly disagree. I grew up in Northern Minnesota (around the 47th parallel, nearly double the distance from the pole as the Arctic Circle) where I saw them regularly.
I participated in a program in high school where we would report data from watching them. We learned that in our area, they would be present every few days. However, they were never seen that often. Things like daylight, cloud cover, time of sleeping, etc., restricted that.
Extra class ham operator said it’s not the northern lights he was using his Henery 3 kilowatt amp on 80 meters.
Here you go:
Go down the page on the left to the real time “current aurora oval” showing where the aurora should be visible.
Haven’t seen good Northern Lights in lower Michigan since the 1980’s.
In western NY, back in the ‘60s we were taking some people home from church one Sunday night and saw the strangest sky — and so beautiful and a bit scary We had no clue that it was the Northern Lights but later, when I lived in Alaska, I figured out exactly what we had seen.
Northern lights in Alaska — on my bucket list.
No, North of Interstate 30 about a 100 miles east of Dallas. About 2005.
thanks. got it working finally last night
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