If you are a lover of space and weather, tonight's weather phenomena will surely pique your interest! The Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) will be visible much farther south than normal tonight, and NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) has issued a Severe (G4) Geomagnetic Storm Watch for this evening. The Geomagnetic Storm Watch scale progresses from G0 at the lowest to G5 at the highest. This is the first G4 issued since 2005! Additional solar eruptions could cause geomagnetic storm conditions to persist through the weekend. The forecast Kp index for this event is an 8, and Louisville has seen the Northern Lights in the past with that same Kp index value. This value will likely peak between 2 AM and 5 AM. But how likely is it that folks in Kentuckiana will see the Northern Lights tonight or later this weekend? Let's dig in!
The Northern Lights will most likely be seen farther south tonight compared to the rest of the weekend. The red line (labeled viewing line) depicts where the phenomena is likely to be seen just based on the intensity of the sun's coronal ejections. That line is draped across central Indiana, but it doesn't mean folks in that area will for sure see it.
Just like with the solar eclipse about a month ago, clouds could impede the viewing of this event! Here's a look at our expected cloud cover around midnight tonight. It definitely isn't the best view in the world, but there will be some breaks in the cloud cover. Don't bank on getting a great view of the lights even if you are in our most northern counties with a clearing above you, but maybe step outside and try to catch a glimpse if it's something that's on your bucket list!
Saturday night's Aurora Borealis won't extend as far south as tonight's, and the "viewing line" is expected to be north of Chicago. Unfortunately, Saturday night just so happens to have the least amount of cloud cover for anyone trying to view the event in our area.
It's *possible* that the Aurora Borealis may be visible as far south as Northern Alabama tonight, but don't expect it to be a crazy spectacular display of dancing lights in the Ohio River Valley just because it *might* be seen that much farther south than our region.
Mother's Day Weekend Forecast:
We're on the cool side today, but that doesn't last forever! A little rain is possible Saturday morning with wind gusts around 30 mph throughout the day. Temperatures climb to the low and middle 70s. We'll start off cool on Mother's Day with 40s likely in our coldest spots. Winds will be fairly light, and we'll have plenty of sunshine to warm us all up to the middle 70s.
