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Did you miss the northern lights on Friday? There is another chance to see them Sunday night

The ongoing geomagnetic storm is expected to become more intense on Sunday once again, giving us another chance to see the northern lights.

By: Katie McGraw

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Did you miss the northern light show on Friday night? If so - I have good news for you! There is another chance to see the northern lights on Sunday night.

According to the Space Weather Prediction Center, the ongoing geomagnetic storm is expected to become more intense later today and continue into Monday. A G4+ (severe) geomagnetic watch remains in effect on Sunday. During periods of strong geomagnetic storms, aurora will be widespread and seen at lower latitudes.

A large sunspot (known as NOAA region 3664) ejected enormous blasts of energy toward Earth. These are known as Coronal Mass Ejections (or CMEs). They are moving up to speeds of 1800 km per second toward Earth! These CMEs will slam into the Earth's magnetic field and reach the outer atmosphere Sunday and into Sunday night. Geomagnetic storming of varying intensity will continue overnight into Monday. The sunspot causing this geomagnetic storm is very large. You can even see it! If you still have your solar eclipse glasses, you should be able to safely see sunspot AR3664.

This is a lot of mumbo-jumbo to say that there is another chance to see the northern lights on Sunday night!

I took a chance on Friday night to see if I could spot them, and I am so glad I did. Because of my work schedule, I typically go to bed pretty early on Friday and Saturday nights. I purposely waited up until 10 p.m., so it was dark enough following the sunset. I did not walk outside and immediately see a colorful sky. It actually took several minutes for me to notice something faint directly above my head. I used my iPhone camera and was able to confirm the faint line above my head was indeed the northern lights! I stayed outside for about 20-30 minutes, and the show would ebb and flow. At times, it was easy to spot the various colors with my own eyes; sometimes, my phone captured it much better and other times, it looked like a normal night. My suggestion is to be patient while looking for them. I will probably try to look again tonight!

If you are interested in seeing them, I can attest it is worth trying! I would say try to look between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. The Instagram post below is from my Instagram page with a few pictures I snapped Friday night.

The weather will also be better than Saturday night. It may not be as clear as it was on Friday night, but I expect mostly clear to partly cloudy overnight. Temperatures look to be pretty mild, too. Temperatures should drop from the low 60s at 10 p.m. to the mid/low 50s by 2 a.m.