Northern lights likely to be visible in Northern Michigan for next few days

Brendan Wiesner, The Sault News
·2 min read
The skies above Lake Michigan are lit up by the Northern Lights.
The skies above Lake Michigan are lit up by the Northern Lights.

There's a chance that residents of Northern Michigan will be able to see the northern lights for the next few days.

The National Weather Service is predicting a strong geo-magnetic storm in space starting on Thursday, which means that there are currently more sun spots and coronal mass ejections occurring. These mass ejections are likely to cause disturbances in the Earth's electromagnetic field, these disturbances may cause northern lights to appear.

Northern lights are rarely occurring in the United States but the conditions that make northern lights possible will be present starting the night of Aug. 17 lasting until the night of Aug. 19. in the Upper Peninsula and parts of the Lower Peninsula.

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There is no confirmation that the northern lights will appear, but people in Northern Michigan have the best chance of seeing them. The night sky in Northern Michigan is expected to be mostly clear Aug. 17, leaving the best possible conditions for viewing if the lights do appear.

The lights are more likely to appear further north. For the best viewing opportunities, the National Weather Service suggests going to an area with very little light pollution and looking north.

"If you want to have your best chances of seeing them, you're going to want to get to an area where you're away from light. You want it to be as dark as possible, away from buildings and stuff like that, to give yourself the best chance to have an unobstructed view of the northern sky," said Dan Cornish, meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in Gaylord. "You may not immediately see them if they are faint. You want to have your eyes adjust to adjust to the darkness, too. All of those things combined could increase your chances of seeing them (Wednesday) night."

While the geomagnetic storm is happening it is possible but unlikely for people to experience disruptions to GPS and high frequency radios.

Contact Brendan Wiesner: BWiesner@Sooeveningnews.com

This article originally appeared on The Sault News: Northern lights likely to be visible in the Northern Michigan