Michigan is on the radar in Tuesday night’s aurora forecast, but will Metro Detroiters be able to see it?
According to the NOAA Space Weather Center, the Northern Lights could be seen in Alaska, Washington, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine on New Year’s Eve. Parts of Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Iowa and New York may also get a piece of the view.
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The NOAA Space Weather Center provided the following graphic for the aurora forecast for New Year’s Eve 2024:
The view line lies mostly on Michigan, but that last stretch of green on the map barely hits Northern Michigan and the Upper Peninsula.
Local 4’s Bryan Schuerman said it will be unlikely all of Michigan will see the Northern Lights since the state, including up north, will see cloud cover heading into the New Year with rain and snow showers likely in the Metro Detroit area.
What are the Northern Lights?
The bright dancing lights of the aurora are actually collisions between electrically charged particles from the sun that enter the earth’s atmosphere. The lights are seen above the magnetic poles of the northern and southern hemispheres.
They are known as ‘Aurora borealis’ in the north and ‘Aurora Australis’ in the south. Auroral displays appear in many colors although pale green and pink are the most common. Shades of red, yellow, green, blue, and violet have been reported.
The lights appear in many forms from patches or scattered clouds of light to streamers, arcs, rippling curtains or shooting rays that light up the sky with an eerie glow.
