Northern Lights Might Be Visible This Week, but Most of the US Won’t See Them

Northern Lights Might Be Visible This Week, but Most of the US Won’t See Them
An aurora borealis, also known as the northern lights, in the night sky near Washtucna, Wash., in the early morning hours of April 24, 2023. Ted S. Warren/AP Photo
The Associated Press
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NEW YORK—The northern lights could put on a show this week—though the audience will be much smaller than some early forecasts had suggested.

The sky spectacle will be fairly typical: Stretches of Canada have a chance to spot the shimmering curtain of the aurora borealis, while a few in the U.S. could see a faint reddish glow on the horizon. Here’s what to know about the updated predictions.

Who Can See the Lights This Week?

An early forecast by the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute, using data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, suggested that the northern lights could be visible much farther south than usual this week. But that forecast was based on long-term predictions about the solar activity responsible for the display. Forecasts using more current data from NOAA predict nothing special for the U.S.