northern lights to be visible from lower 48?

[agentsteel53]

here is the prediction for August 4th and 5th.  This is predicted to be a level 4 event, which occurs about once every couple of years.



Now may be a good time for folks to venture into the upper midwest, or southern Canada.

[oscar]

I was reading in today's Portland ME newspaper that the lights might be visible from Maine tonight or tomorrow night.

http://www.pressherald.com/news/Maine-Portland-northern-lights-sun-storms.html

[Chris]

It was in the news in the Netherlands as well. Apparently, sun activity was rather low the last couple of years. Most solar flares were not in the direction of planet earth.

[froggie]

I wouldn't exactly call it common, but seeing the Aurora Borealis from northern Maine or northern Minnesota isn't exactly rare, either...

[agentsteel53]

I wouldn't exactly call it common, but seeing the Aurora Borealis from northern Maine or northern Minnesota isn't exactly rare, either...

I've never seen them from the lower 48.  A friend of mine saw them in Los Angeles during the solar storm of 1989... apparently the furthest south they've been seen is Mexico City in 1859.

the usual peak is March 15th and September 3rd of each year; here's hoping something happens then, as that is when I am going to Quebec.

[usends]

November 2001, I saw them from around Strasburg, Colorado (east of Denver).  I later read that the same event was visible from as far south as Arkansas.

[Scott5114]

The local media is discussing the possibility of them even being faintly visible here in central OK...

Well, okay, it was on "Rise & Shine Oklahoma", and since we already know everything KFOR touches turns to shit, that sort of discredits it.

[agentsteel53]

they're now downgrading their prediction from it being a giant event to being simply larger than average, so northern Minnesota still may be everyone's best bet.

[Alps]

People were saying on the radio this morning they saw it in NYC last night.  I don't know what to make of it, due to the light pollution and the fact that we're supposed to be out of range.  That'd be the last place I'd expect to see northern lights.  Edit - besides, say, anything in the Tropics.