Northern Lights May Be Visible from New York on Thursday
Photo by James Sensor.
New Yorkers may have the rare pleasure of seeing the Northern Lights — a phenomenon usually seen at higher latitudes — on Thursday, though they’re probably not going to be visible from the city itself. Various upstate areas are more likely to see the aurora.
A massive geomagnetic solar storm is about to hit earth, and that makes it more likely that people who don’t traditionally see the Northern Lights will get a peek, according to the National Weather Service.
So there is a lot of buzz about potential #SolarStorm heading our way. The SWPC issued a G3 Geomagnetic Storm Watch for Thursday, Dec 10th. Yellow line on the map shows the furthest southward potential for the #NorthernLights could be observed.https://t.co/peTr0Sbefw#OHwx #PAwx pic.twitter.com/4RMWXcZYTB
— NWS Cleveland (@NWSCLE) December 9, 2020
“The alerts have to do with the amount of solar activity predicted to hit Earth which then create the beautiful light displays,” according to Time Out. “Similar to your standard sip n’ paint, greater levels of energy mean more colorful and beautiful displays.”
At the very least, it’s worth peeking out the window. And then booking a trip to Lapland when the pandemic ends.
around what time should we expect to see the northern light on thursday?
When it’s dark.
Apparently not:
“Robert Rutledge, the lead of operations at the Space Weather Prediction Center, said the agency had high hopes for Thursday and Friday, but it downgraded its forecast because the chances turned out to be a ‘big miss.'”
What I saw last night and at dawn, were the most beautiful “sparkles” of light – like prisms all over the sky.