'Incredible' Aurora Borealis Could Be Again Visible In Illinois Monday

ILLINOIS — Ethan Mok had a pretty good idea that he might be in for a pretty incredible light show when he ventured out to seek out the aurora borealis on Sunday night.

Mok, a Crystal Lake native and a junior meteorology major at Northern Illinois University, lists himelf on Twitter as a storm-chaser, but has added seeking out the celestial light show along his hobbies. In fact, when he spotted the aurora borealis on Sunday night, it was actually the sixth time he has seen the phenomenon and the second time he has done so in the past two months.

But that doesn't mean it was anything short of spectacular for the young sky-watcher, who captured the photos beginning at 10:20 p.m. on Sunday night in Apple River, which is about 100 miles from DeKalb, where he attends college.

"I would describe it as nothing short of incredible," Mok told Patch on Monday after capturing the photos with a Canon T3i, which he describes as an "old camera" but all he has. "The Aurora feels alive when it’s dancing overhead."

Some residents across the state were fortunate to capture a glimpse of the celestial light show on Sunday night. Those chances will continue on Monday night, when the Midwest is among the areas with better chances to see the amazing burst of nighttime color in the country.

People as far south as Alabama and other areas of the country who aren’t used to seeing the aurora borealis were treated to a jaw-dropping light show Sunday, and more northern lights displays Monday are possible as far south as Alabama and northern California.

On Friday, the sun let off a huge burst of energy known as a coronal mass ejection that triggered the ethereal displays, according to the Space Weather Prediction Center at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

CMEs, as they’re known, have their own magnetic fields. The giant blob of energy traveled toward Earth at around 2 million miles per hour, according to NOAA, setting off a severe geomagnetic storm.

NOAA said a watch for a moderate geomagnetic storm remains in effect Monday in states through the nation’s midsection. Aurora forecasts are notoriously tricky and can quickly change. The best times to look are between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m., away from dark areas and city lights, according to NOAA.

According to the Space Weather Watch, the cloud cover that is expected to continue in the overnight hours into Tuesday, Illinois along with other parts of the Midwest, Great Plains and other parts of the Great Lakes region may make for the most favorable viewing conditions.

The geomagnetic storm Sunday was a doozie, registering 4 out of 5 on NOAA’s space weather G- scale) at 3:26 p.m. EDT Sunday. Just a few hours later, people in more than two dozen states stopped to gasp and snap photos.

Social media feeds saw a steady stream of spectacular images, both from the National Weather Service and casual observers. “Absolutely incredible #aurora happening right now, visible to the naked eye,” Adam Springer, a forecaster for the National Weather Service in Dodge City, Kansas, tweeted Sunday just after 11:15 p.m.

“It won’t quit,” a Twitter user said of aurora displays in northwest Arkansas. The auroras were seen in multiple places in the Midwest, including Illinois and Nebraska.

Serious aurora hunters have been waiting for this time in an 11-year cycle in which the sun’s magnetic field flips polarity. We’re a year away from the peak of what is called “solar maximum” and are likely to see an increase in solar storms through 2028, triggering more of the red, green, purple, and yellow curtains of light.

· Read More: Why Aurora Borealis Displays Are More Likely | Northern Lights Hunting Tips

“This increased activity from the sun is consistent with the current state and timing of the solar cycle,” NOAA space scientist Rob Steenburgh said Monday in a news release. “Energetic events like solar flares and coronal mass ejections have become more frequent in the past year, and especially in the past month, and we expect activity to continue ramping up to the peak next year.”

The sun has negative and positive polarity, just like Earth. During the reversal of polarity — that is, negative becomes positive, and positive becomes negative. That causes more sunspots and lots of space weather.