Aurora chasers, it's time to charge up your cameras, don your hats and gloves, and get ready for a long night looking up at the sky. Last night, the best northern lights display of the year dazzled across the continental United States—reaching as far south as Mexico—and it could continue tonight.
The northern lights occur when charged particles from the sun impact the Earth and react with our magnetic field. Those particles can burst forth from the sun via various events, including coronal mass ejections (CMEs), or eruptions of plasma and magnetic fields that often occur alongside solar flares. Since November 9, five major X-class solar flares—the most powerful type of solar flare—erupted from the sun, including the largest one of the year at X5.1 intensity. Two associated CME hit the Earth last night, producing extraordinary auroras across the US. Now, there's one more on the way.
When such emissions are inbound, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) issues geomagnetic storm watches on a scale of G1 to G5. For these recent solar events, it issued a G2 geomagnetic storm watch for Tuesday, November 11, and a G4 watch for Wednesday, November 12. Today, SWPC extended the G4 watch to Thursday, November 13. Keep in mind that SWPC uses Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), which is hours ahead of US time zones. In the US, the northern lights are expected to peak the night of November 11 and November 12. Below, everything aurora-hunters need to know to catch the dazzling display.
This article has been updated with new information since its original publish date.
Where can you see the northern lights in the US?
On November 11, viewers in the US were able to see the northern lights as far south as Florida and Texas. If you're hoping to see the northern lights tonight, the best thing to do is go to the darkest place you can find with clear views to the north after sunset. (That said, the northern lights were visible in heavily polluted cities last night, including New York.) The farther south you are, the lower the northern lights will be on the horizon. In extremely southern locations, you might only see a red glow—that's because the aurora appears red at high altitudes, with greens coming in closer to the Earth's surface (and purples and blues below that). Additionally, a weak display might not be visible to the naked eye, but it might show up on a camera—hold up your phone to the night sky, and you might be surprised.
"During a G4 geomagnetic storm, we may see the auroral ovals expand to lower latitudes and places in the central US may see naked-eye auroral displays throughout the night," aurora photographer and space weather Ph.D student Vincent Ledvina wrote on X. "The US-Mexico border latitude could even see red glows on-camera during big flareups called substorms."
Some of the best places in the contiguous US to see the northern lights (beyond Alaska) include Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument in Maine, Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and Voyageurs National Park in Minnesota, and Glacier National Park in Montana. Even if the auroras decide not to show, officially designated Dark Sky Places like Big Bend National Park in Texas and Big Cypress National Preserve in Florida promise prime stargazing and outdoor adventure regardless.
When will the northern lights be visible?
As always, when it comes to the northern lights, some expectation setting is in order. SWPC's watch is simply a forecast for geomagnetic activity, so there's a chance the northern lights will underperform.
Quite a few stars need to align to make the magic repeat itself tonight. For instance, the CME needs to actually impact Earth (it's possible it could miss us), the CME needs to be fairly strong, and the magnetic fields of the CME and the Earth need to be in a specific orientation for the most vibrant aurora to appear.
What time can you see the northern lights?
The timings of the CME impacts are difficult to predict, as we don't have a way to measure their speed accurately while they're traveling from the sun to the Earth. We can get a much clearer idea of the potential timing and intensity of the northern lights display when the CME reaches our space weather satellites, located approximately 1 million miles away from Earth. Once our satellites register an impact, there will be about a 15- to 60-minute notice period for its arrival to Earth, depending on the speed of the CME. From that point forward, you can expect auroras just about any time. Even if the CME impact occurs during daylight hours in your location, this particular event could last hours if not days, meaning there may still be a chance to see the aurora once darkness arrives.
That said, SWPC estimates a CME's arrival time based on the available data and computer models, and last night, its forecast was spot on. It predicted two impacts the evening of November 11—one “later on Tuesday” and another “shortly after, early on Wednesday"—both of which came to fruition.
SWPC estimated the third CME would arrive around midday EST on November 12, but the first signs of impact appeared just before 3 pm EST. That “late” arrival is all the better for American skywatchers, as we want the impact to be as close to nightfall as possible. Last night, the northern lights showed up in the early evening on the East Coast and lasted just about all night long. Based on SWPC's forecast and the timing of the CME impact, you can expect to see the aurora as soon as darkness sets in—again, if those proverbial stars align.
The most dedicated aurora hunters will stay up through the night watching for the northern lights, as the show tends to ebb and flow over the hours. If you're familiar with space weather data, you can monitor real-time information via SWPC or sites like SpaceWeatherLive. (But don't rely too heavily on aurora alerts, as they're not often very accurate.) Alternatively, one of the easiest ways anyone can stay informed and up-to-date is by following SWPC and space weather scientists like Ledvina, Jure Atanackov, Sara Housseal, and Dr. Tamitha Skov on social media to keep tabs on all the action. You can also search for and join local social media groups dedicated to aurora viewing, where chasers share updates from the field. (SpaceWeatherLive just launched a Discord yesterday, for instance.) Stay patient and keep your eye on the prize—the sky!
