Will northern lights be visible in Florida again this week?
If you missed them last month, you might have a second chance at catching a glimpse of the northern lights. Without leaving your Florida home. Strong solar flares from the sun and a moonless night sky made northern lights visible in the Sunshine State on May 10. The solar flares originated from a gigantic sunspot, according to LiveScience.
Combined with the sun’s rotation, that same sunspot – producing strong solar flares – will face Earth again later this week.
Here’s what to know.
When will they next be visible?
The best time to see the northern lights will be from June 4 to June 6. Several factors will determine whether they will be visible, including cloud cover.
Northern lights’ spread on May 10
Floridians were treated to an awe-inspiring sight on May 10, 2024, as the northern lights painted the night sky.
The light show was visible as far south as Hawaii and Puerto Rico, according to AccuWeather.
NOAA has aurora borealis forecast
NOAA’s Space Prediction Center provides a short-term forecast for the location and intensity of the northern lights. The models provide a 30-minute and 90-minute forecast.
Bookmark the page as the date nears.
Will Florida see lights this week?
It’s possible. The sunspot will be facing Earth June 6, and it’s still active and discharging solar flares.
Even better, it’ll happen during a new moon when the sky is the darkest.
Keep watching NOAA’s Space Prediction Center as the date approaches.
Watch live cam of northern lights
The Churchill Northern Studies Center in Churchill, Manitoba, along the shores of Hudson Bay, “is located directly underneath the aurora oval – one of the best places on earth to watch the aurora borealis,” according to its website.
Watch its live cam if the light show doesn’t make its way as far south as Florida later this week.
What are the northern lights?
The northern lights look like ribbons of light flashing across the night sky. They’re “created when energized particles from the sun slam into Earth’s upper atmosphere at speeds of up to 45 million mph, but our planet’s magnetic field protects us from the onslaught,” said Space.com.
As the Earth’s magnetic field redirects the particles toward the poles, we see what has come to be called the northern lights. In the Northern Hemisphere, the phenomenon is called the northern lights, or aurora borealis, while in the Southern Hemisphere, it’s called the southern lights, or aurora australis.
Why are there different colors?
The bright colors of the northern lights are determined by the chemical composition of Earth’s atmosphere and the altitude where the solar particles collide with gases, according to Space.com. The aurora is most often seen as green, but it also occasionally shows off other colors, ranging from red to pink or blue to purple, according to the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Geophysical Institute.
Green, the most common aurora color, is produced by oxygen molecules in Earth’s atmosphere at altitudes of around 60 to 190 miles, according to the Canadian Space Agency.
Red auroras are usually associated with more intense solar activity and happen when solar particles react with oxygen at higher altitudes, generally 180 to 250 miles, according to CSA.
Blue and purple auroras are less common and also tend to appear during periods of high solar activity, Space.com said. These colors are produced when solar particles collide with nitrogen in Earth’s atmosphere at an altitude of 60 miles or less, according to The Aurora Zone.
“Yellow and pink auroras are rare and are typically associated with high solar activity. These colors result from a mixture of red auroras with green or blue auroras,” Space.com said.
Contributors: Kim Luciani, Florida USA Today Network, Florida; Laura Lordi, Palm Beach Post.