If you feel like you keep seeing more reports of Northern Lights sightings in the U.S., you're not imagining things. In fact, scientists predict that it will become a far more common occurrence in the coming years. This is because Earth is in the midst of a full solar cycle, which is solar activity that can last about 11 years, explains Space.com. During these cycles, the sun's magnetic poles flip, leading to geomagnetic storms that cause the sun's energy particles to interact with Earth's upper atmosphere, creating colorful light shows in the sky.
Now, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has issued a "severe" geomagnetic storm watch for today, Oct. 10, and Friday, Oct. 11. This is likely to result in the Northern Lights, or aurora borealis, becoming visible "over much of the northern half of the country, and maybe as far south as Alabama to northern California."
RELATED: 8 Best Places to See the Northern Lights in 2024.
"We are forecasting a severe G4 magnetic geomagnetic storm," Shawn Dahl, service co-ordinator at NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center, said in a media briefing. “The current anticipation is that it’s going to arrive [Thursday] morning to midday Eastern time and perhaps continue on into the following day."
The cause of the storm is a "coronal mass ejection (CME)—a stream of charged particles from the sun—that erupted from the sun late on Oct. 8," Forbes explains.
The CME has been traveling at 2.5 million miles per hour, "the fastest CME we have measured in this solar cycle thus far," said Dahl.
In May, an extreme solar storm (known as a G5) brought the Northern Lights to much of North America and Europe. It was the strongest solar storm recorded in over two decades. G5 storms can bring aurora as far south as Florida and southern Texas, while G4 storms can reach Alabama and northern California.
If this latest solar storm is downgraded to a G3 (which is possible, because astronomers can't get an exact reading until a CME is one million miles, or about 15 to 30 minutes away, from Earth), viewing is likely to end around Illinois and Oregon.
"Will this be a global phenomenon or seen across the United States, such as the May storm? It's tough to say until we get a good read on it," Dahl said, per Space.com. "We would really need to reach those G5 levels for that to happen again, and we do have a chance for that."
To get the best viewing experience, go outside between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. local time and find a spot farthest away from city lights, the NOAA suggests. If you can find an elevated location, even better.
And, to stay up to date on the progress of the solar storm, you can check the NOAA's 30-minute forecast. Dahl also suggests signing up for real-time alerts.
