Chance to see northern lights returns to the Miami Valley

DAYTON — The Miami Valley has a legitimate shot to see the northern lights on Sunday and Monday nights, according to Storm Center 7’s Nick Dunn.

However, smoke from wildfires in Canada will impact visibility, and may led to no visibility at all.

Ohio’s chance to see northern lights is thanks to a strong coronal mass ejection (CME) from the sun that resulted from a strong solar flare on Friday evening.

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Dunn says the CME arrived early Sunday morning. Any chance to see the northern lights will be after dark.

The chance to see the northern lights depends on lots of factors, a subtle change in timing or strength of the geomagnetic storms can help or hurt our chances to see the northern lights, Dunn says.

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The NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center has issued a G4 (Severe) Geomagnetic Storm Watch for Sunday and Monday. This classification and the K-index are not the only tools used to gauge our northern lights chances, Dunn says, proton levels and how the solar wind field is interacting with any geomagnetic activity as it arrives on Earth are also factors.

At this time, there is not an expectation to repeat our show from May 2024, according to the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center.

What you can do to have the best chances of seeing or photographing the northern lights:

Place yourself in a dark area away from city lights with a clear view of the northern horizon. This is critical since we look north to see them.
To take the best photos, a professional camera will ultimately be best. However, if you have a smartphone that has a night mode setting, you can use that. Ensure you increase the exposure setting to allow your camera to see better in low light situations. Our eyes have a hard time seeing colors at night in a very dark area, which is where your camera comes into play.