Aurora borealis, better known as the northern lights, could be visible across Pennsylvania on the night of Oct. 11 as the result of a geomagnetic storm.
The current forecast from the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center shows the phenomena being visible across the northern United States. Parts of the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh metro areas are within the limits for a potential sighting of the elusive Aurora Borealis.
On the night of Oct. 10, people across Pennsylvania were surprised to see the lights dance across the sky.
The geomagnetic storm is currently at G4 intensity out of a G1-5 scale. G4 storms could lead to some voltage problems on power grids. Other effects include temporarily degraded satellite navigation and disrupted low frequency radio navigation.
Why is the aurora visible in the northeast?
This geomagnetic storm is from a coronal mass ejection, which raced toward Earth on Oct. 10.
A coronal mass ejection is a large expulsion of plasma and magnetic field from the Sun’s corona, according to the SWPC. The energy was moving at 2.5 million mph, according to Shawn Dahl, the service coordinator for SWPC, during a virtual media briefing on Oct. 9.