Where you may be able to see the northern lights this weekend

WASHINGTON — Solar storms may cause faint northern lights across fringes of the northern United States over the weekend as forecasters monitor for possible disruptions to power and communications.

The sun’s magnetic field is currently at the peak of its 11-year cycle, making solar storms and northern lights more frequent. The sun shot out two strong flares this week, including one Thursday that was the biggest since 2017.

Pale auroras may be visible as far south as South Dakota, Iowa and New York — but the storms could still intensify or weaken over the weekend.

“There’s still a fair amount of uncertainty,” Erica Grow Cei, spokesperson for the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said Friday.

Unusually strong solar storms in May produced jaw-dropping aurora displays across the Northern Hemisphere. This week’s storms featured fewer ejections of the high energy plasma that can drive a light show, according to NOAA.

Forecasters with the Space Weather Prediction Center at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued G3 (Strong) Geomagnetic Storm Watches for Friday, Oct. 4 to Sunday, Oct. 6 “due to a pair of coronal mass ejections” that are expected to arrive over the next three days. 

A G3 is the third-highest category in the NOAA’s space weather scales, only behind G4 (Severe) and G5 (Extreme). 

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.