If you woke up Friday morning with an extreme sense of FOMO after seeing photos of the aurora borealis across social media, rest assured — you may get another chance to see them with your own eyes tonight.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center extended its warning through Friday evening, alerting that operators of satellite navigation, power grids and telecommunications systems could experience disruptions from the geomagnetic storm, along with a colorful light show.
“Aurora may be seen as low as Pennsylvania to Iowa to Oregon,” the alert said.
It will be possible to see faint colors Friday night in northern Colorado, scientists at the center said.
The agency, headquartered in Boulder, is expecting Friday’s storm, and its effects, to be slightly less intense than Thursday night’s G4 storm — a four out of a five on the geomagnetic storm scale. Forecasters predict a G3 storm Friday, which could cause low-frequency radio navigation problems or false alarms triggered on some devices, according to the NOAA’s scale.
On Thursday night, northern lights dazzled the night sky with people across the country reporting seeing — and photographing — shimmering curtains of red, purple and green.
“As far as Colorado goes, it’s far less likely to see it tonight, but there is a chance, a little fainter perhaps maybe much further up in northern Colorado, to glimpse it, if conditions are favorable for a brief period tonight,” Shawn Dahl, a service coordinator at NOAA’s Space and Weather Prediction Center, said Friday morning.
Afternoon clouds are expected to clear by the evening, making for ideal sky gazing, said Bernie Meier, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service Office in Boulder.
“Weatherwise, it looks like a good night for it. We’ll have mostly clear skies and just given it’s fall, it will be a little cool, light-jacket weather,” Meier said. “Otherwise, a nice evening given this time of year.”
Where can you see northern lights in Colorado on Friday?
If northern lights are visible Friday night, your best bet is to catch them in northern Colorado, in areas near Fort Collins and the Wyoming border, Dahl said.
On Thursday, colors were seen in areas across Colorado, where it is unusual to catch such intense colors. Viewers reported light shows as far south as Florida.
As the storm weakens, it’s less likely to catch colors as intense as Thursday or as far south, Dahl said.
“Our main expectation is things are weakening, and it’s going to diminish that ability to see it farther south in Colorado,” he said.
What’s causing the aurora in Colorado?
Auroras are caused when strong blasts of solar particles and magnetic fields, barreling through space, bombard the magnetic fields surrounding Earth and interact with gases in the atmosphere.
The blast, known as a coronal mass ejection, was launched by a solar flare earlier this week and headed directly toward Earth, Dahl said, adding that the intensity of the storm will ultimately depend on how the fields in the magnetic cloud are oriented when it strikes magnetic fields around Earth.
“So it was pretty easy to anticipate an Earth effect from that one, but the timing and the intensity are always much more difficult and challenging to figure out,” Dahl said.
Will there be other chances to see northern lights in Colorado?
“No doubt about it,” Dahl said.
While the aurora borealis phenomenon is relatively rare, the current sun cycle — an 11-year cycle in which the sun alternates between active and quiet — is very active, Dahl said.
The current cycle could boost the chances of people in Colorado, and other places in the U.S., to see northern lights through 2026, he said.
The sun is currently experiencing a period of increased activity, which typically happens about halfway through the sun’s 11-year cycle.
“We are in the grips of solar maximum and that’s why this is happening more often. This cycle has been quite active, much more active than originally forecast six years ago,” Dahl said.
May’s light show was caused by a G-5 geomagnetic storm, he said. The colors seen during an aurora depend on the gas mixture in the atmosphere. Reds are often seen during the strongest geomagnetic storms and form when solar particles react to oxygen at higher altitudes, according to Space.com.
“We are going to be in this continual ride through maximum throughout the rest of this year, through 2025 and even into 2026 before things really begin to settle down.”
What other impacts does a geomagnetic storm have on Earth?
Aside from predicting pretty light shows, scientists at NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center monitor geomagnetic storms to help communicate potential impacts to people who rely on radio and GPS to operate critical infrastructure.
“Sometimes it can be quite the collapse of a system if it’s very extreme and unmitigated, meaning they aren’t taking protective measures,” Dahl said.
Ahead of Thursday’s G-4 geomagnetic storm, scientists at the center were talking with officials from The White House, FEMA and other emergency managers assisting people in Florida in the aftermath of Hurricane Milton.
Some planes had significant disruptions to their navigation systems and had to rely on other methods to navigate, Dahl said, adding that he wasn’t aware of any safety issues.
More tips to boost your shot at catching a light show tonight in Colorado
- The best times to see the northern lights are from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m., according to NOAA. But since it is getting darker earlier, Dahl said colors could be seen earlier, about two hours after sunset.
- Go away from city lights. The best aurora is visible without artificial lighting.
- Try to watch from a high vantage point, like a hill, with an unobstructed view toward the north.
- Sometimes, the lights can be invisible to the naked eye. To capture the colors on your smartphone, use a steady tripod, dim your screen and adjust exposure time to between 10 to 15 seconds, Visit Iceland, Iceland’s tourism website suggests.