Northern Lights Possible In PA This Week After Massive Solar Flare

The sun fired off another massive solar flare early Thursday morning, further increasing the chances of seeing the colorful northern lights as far south as Pennsylvania this week and into the weekend.

Thursday’s strong X9.0 solar flare, the strongest of the current solar cycle, followed Tuesday’s X7.1 solar flare, increasing the chances the aurora borealis could dip far into the nation’s midsection, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center.

Local weather conditions look favorable for aurora chasers. The National Weather Service forecast through the weekend calls for mainly clear skies.

The sun is currently at or near “solar maximum,” the peak in its 11-year cycle when heightened geomagnetic storming increases the chances of seeing the aurora far south of its Arctic range.

Thursday’s X9.0 flare was stronger than the X8.7 flare in May that pushed the aurora to near nation’s southern border in a spectacular display seen around the world.

“Flares of this magnitude in and around solar maximum are generally not common, although not necessarily unusual,” NOAA said in a statement on the social media platform X.

But, the agency cautioned, “solar flares of this magnitude can be impulsive,” meaning they are quick to rise and decrease. Some last minutes, while others go on for a few hours.

Related: As Sun Nears Solar Maximum Peak, More Northern Lights Displays Likely

The chances of seeing northern lights generally increase around the fall equinox, when the sun produces a surplus of geomagnetic storms — almost twice the annual average — but this fall and the coming year should be especially spectacular as Solar Cycle 25 reaches its peak, which NOAA predicts will occur from November through March 2026.

The ethereal curtains of pink, purple, green and yellow light have been seen in multiple U.S. locations over the past several months. The Space Weather Prediction Center’s aurora dashboard is a good site to bookmark for aurora chasers. In general, the best times to see the northern lights are within an hour or two of midnight.

Geomagnetic storms start with the explosions, or solar flares, of superheated gasses that can be as powerful as a billion hydrogen bombs.

When this happens, the electron- and proton-charged magnetic particles hurtling toward our planet in a coronal mass ejection, or CME, can temporarily disrupt Earth’s magnetic fields, sending the oval aurora south of its Arctic home, but also potentially disrupting satellite systems and GPS and radio communications.