Keep an eye on the skies on Saturday night for what could be another dazzling display of nature — or not, depending on your location and weather conditions.
An unusual amount of solar flare activity means that the aurora borealis, or the northern lights, could continue to appear over the weekend.
The solar storm was a level 5 on Friday, which gave some star gazers a clear view of streaks of green, purple and red that arced across the skies. Those conditions are expected to continue, Mike Bettwy, the operations chief of the Space Weather Prediction Center, said on Saturday.
“It should be fairly similar to what we saw last night, maybe not as widespread but fairly close,” Mr. Bettwy said.
“Depending on how everything evolves,” he added, “tomorrow night might actually be better than tonight” for views of the aurora.
In areas with clear skies, the display on Sunday could be similar to what people witnessed on Friday.
If you’re in a place with a lot of bright lights — like a city — it’s going to be hard to see anything. And then there are other complications, like the weather.
Two weather systems on Saturday night could impair viewing of the solar display, said Bryan Jackson, a forecaster at the Weather Prediction Center.
The Northeast is likely to be overcast because of a cloud system that could stretch from the Midwest and center over Pennsylvania. Cloud coverage might also extend as far as Maine, with the potential to clear around New Hampshire.
“This event is strong enough that the Northeast United States pretty much universally has a good shot at seeing it,” Mr. Bettwy said. “It’s just a matter of making sure that the cloud cover is absent.”
A second storm system, which was predicted to produce a fair amount of rain and cloud coverage, is possible over the Southwest.
Mr. Jackson said Michigan was likely to have clear skies between waves of rain. Other regions of the country could have clear views, too.
“In Seattle, it was pretty clear last night and it looks to be pretty clear again,” Mr. Jackson said on Saturday. “Portions of the southern Rockies, portions of the southern Plains are not overcast, but not completely clear either.”
The lights were particularly brilliant over England on Friday, and images of the solar show awed onlookers in parts of Maine and Massachusetts.
A tip: If you are in a clear area, even south of where the aurora is forecast, snap a picture or record a video with your cellphone.
The sensor on the camera is more sensitive to the wavelengths produced by the aurora and may produce an image you can’t see with the naked eye.
Why is this happening?
A severe solar storm is brewing.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center on Friday issued a rare warning after a solar outburst reached Earth.
As nuclear reactions occur on the sun, it routinely expels material from its surface.
Officials said that the solar activity could potentially cause electrical outages or interfere with navigation and communication systems.
When is this happening?
The expelled material from the sun could reach Earth’s atmosphere by Friday afternoon or evening, officials said.
“What we’re expecting over the next couple of days should be more significant than what we’ve seen, certainly so far,” Mike Bettwy, the operations chief at NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center, said at a news conference on Friday.
What’s flaring up?
The Space Weather Prediction Center said on Friday night that we were experiencing an extreme solar storm, a level 5, up from a level 4 earlier in the day.
The last extreme event happened in October 2003 and resulted in power failures in Sweden and damaged transformers in South Africa, the center said.
The current storm is caused by a cluster of sunspots — dark, cool regions on the solar surface. The cluster is flaring and ejecting material every six to 12 hours.
“We anticipate that we’re going to get one shock after another through the weekend,” said Brent Gordon, chief of the space weather services branch at NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center.
Katrina Miller, Emmett Lindner and Judson Jones contributed reporting.
