Northern Illinois Might Get To See The Aurora Borealis This Week

I asked several coworkers this morning (July 30th, 2024) which of the following atmospheric sky shows they'd rather see:

• Solar eclipse
• Lunar eclipse
• Meteor showers
• Super Moon
• Aurora Borealis (aka: Northern Lights)

It wasn't even close. Every single person I asked about this voted for seeing the Aurora Borealis, and most of them declared that seeing the Northern Lights was something near the top of each of their bucket lists.

Good choice. Since we don't have any eclipses or meteor showers or super moons coming up this week, we'll just have to settle for a potential look at the Aurora Borealis.

Getting To See The Aurora Borealis Is On The Bucket List Of 70% Of People In The US, According To A Recent Survey

Having been lucky enough to have seen the Northern Lights once before in my life (a trip to Norway with my dad), I can tell you that all the hype surrounding them is absolutely accurate. It was truly one of life's great experiences.

Well, according to members of the meteorological community who are literally swooning over this opportunity, those of us in northern states are getting a pretty good chance to see the Northern Lights this week without having to pony up airfare to Canada or Scandinavia.

If everything works out the way we'd like it to, all you'll have to do is go outside and look up at the skies.

We Had Similar Conditions In Northern Illinois About A Year Ago, And Many Illinoisans Got A Chance To See The Northern Lights For The Very First Time

And, according to reports, the geomagnetic storms that have been taking place due to solar activity may actually cause the Aurora Borealis to be visible well south of Northern Illinois, depending on overall cloud cover.

Just To Make Things More Interesting, Scientists Came Up With Quite The Name For The Recent Solar Storms That Are Directed Right At Earth

They're calling it a "Cannibal CME (coronal mass ejection)"

Whatever name they use, the bottom line is that Tuesday night going into Wednesday morning, and Wednesday night into Thursday morning are being reported as the best time to get a look at the Northern Lights here in Northern Illinois.

As a story in Patch.com points out, the science of predicting when the best time to see the Aurora Borealis hasn't been fully perfected and may be off by as much as 24 hours:

Space weather forecaster Tamitha Skov said on X that these are just educated estimates, noting that the region of the sun experiencing geomagnetic storming is growing in complexity and could continue firing big flares over the next few days.

Which means there may be even more chances to check off that item on your bucket list.