Another Weekend Northern Lights Show Is Coming for New York

A Geomagnetic Storm Watch is currently in effect, meaning New York is likely to see an aurora borealis soon.

Remember the intense Northern Lights that practically blanketed the country back in May?  It looks like New York is about to get blasted again, and this time, the weather is on our side.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is tracking an extremely strong X7.1 solar flare that is set to impact earth in some way. The NOAA says X-rated flares are the most intense, but also very rare, and the number measures its overall strength.

This burst of solar energy is a few decibels beneath the record solar flare produced back in May, which sparked intense auroras as far as the southern part of the continent.

That one was rated an X8.7 and it was also the strongest one recorded in the past several years.

The solar flare being tracked NOAA right now is the second strongest of this solar cycle, called Solar Cycle 25.  These cycles are an 11-year period where the sun's magnetic field shifts, says NASA.

Solar Cycle 25 is reaching its peak. That is why we have had so many aurora alerts this year.

Read More: 2024 Will Be the Greatest Year for Northern Lights in New York

NOAA is saying tonight through the weekend is promising high auroral activity and there's a strong possibility Upstate New York will catch the extended show.

How long will nightly auroras last? The University of Alaska Fairbanks' Geographical Institute issued an active aurora alert on Saturday, October 5.

The best time to catch the show will be around the midnight hour for these days, according to the NOAA's predictions.

Even better, the current forecast from the National Weather Service is calling for partially cloudy skies tonight and clear skies on Saturday, October 5. That means the cloud cover shouldn't be an issue, unlike what happened in May.

Also, wildfire smoke from Canada will not be billowing over the state, which ruined our chances of catching a promising solar show last month.

Finally, the moon will be in the best possible phase for viewing. Tonight we will have a waxing crescent, which produces zero illumination that could interfere with the Northern lights.

The moon will still be in this phase come Saturday and it will only provide minimal illumination.

At this moment, it seems this is the best chance Central New York has had to witnessing this celestial event. Here's hoping the weather behaves itself, no smoke enters our state, and that we actually see something magical.

As for why NOAA is fairly confident the Northern lights will happen is because they are  looking for those signature coronal mass ejections, or CMEs, which are the key ingredient for triggering mighty auroras.

CMEs are chock full of charged particles from the sun and if they slam into the earth's atmosphere, they produce that hypnotic array of magentas, blues, and greens in the night sky.

CMEs travel approximately 2,000 miles per second, which comes to about 7.2 million miles per hour.

Considering that whopper of a solar flare activated a Geomagnetic Storm Watch, the NOAA is currently setting Friday's activity to be "strong."

NOAA ranks a storm's strength on a sliding scale of 0 to 5, with 5 being the strongest. Currently, the administration is ranking tonight's storm a G3.

That said, don't forget to peek outside tonight, you might see something really cool!

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