Northern Lights May Be Visible In MI Early This Week: What To Know

MICHIGAN — If you missed the aurora borealis this weekend after an “extreme” G5 geomagnetic storm, there's a chance you can catch them again in Michigan early this week, according to a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecast for a geomagnetic storm.

NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center has forecast a G1 to G5 storm Monday, potentially causing the aurora to dance along the northern tier of U.S. states Monday and Tuesday.

After reaching parts of southern Michigan on Sunday night, the aurora is expected to recede into just the northern parts of Michigan on Monday and Tuesday nights.

The National Weather Service shows mostly clear skies for Monday night, but more cloud coverage and rain chances on Tuesday night across most of northern Michigan. However, wildfire smoke from Canadian wildfires could dampen those chances, especially in the Upper Peninsula.

If the aurora pushes back into southern Michigan, forecasters expect mostly clear skies on Monday and Tuesday nights.

The best place to see the lights are in Michigan’s dark sky parks, which are: Headlands International, in Mackinaw City; Keweenaw in Cooper Harbor and Dr. T.K. Lawless in Jones.

Camera lenses are more sensitive than the naked eye, and smartphones may help viewers spot fainter displays that are more difficult to see.

Other states that can see the lights this week are parts of Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.

Over the weekend, people as far south as North Carolina and California saw the northern lights.

NOAA is predicting the Kp index — a measure of the intensity of auroras — could reach at least 5 if it’s a G1 storm.

At that level, “the aurora will move further from the poles, it will become brighter, and there will be more auroral activity (motion and formations),” according to NOAA. “If you are in the right place, these aurora can be quite pleasing to look at.”

Auroral activity naturally slows between the autumn and spring equinoxes. As scientists explained in 1973 with the introduction of a concept known as the Russell-McPherron, auroral activity tends to peak around the March and September equinoxes due to the complicated relationship between the sun and Earth’s magnetic fields.

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