Northern Lights Alert: Stunning Aurora Borealis Expected Tonight — Exact Viewing Times, Map & Live Stream

A surge of solar energy racing toward Earth is setting the stage for an unusually vivid display of the northern lights tonight and tomorrow, and forecasters say you won’t need to live near the Arctic Circle to enjoy the show. A series of powerful coronal mass ejections (CMEs) that erupted from sunspot region AR3697 late last week has triggered a severe G4-level geomagnetic storm, allowing the aurora borealis to slide hundreds of miles farther south than normal. How far south will the lights reach? The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) projects that energized particles funneling along Earth’s magnetic field lines could illuminate skies as far south as northern California, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Alabama, and possibly flirt with the horizon in Georgia and northern Texas. Cities such as Seattle, Chicago, Boston and New York may see bright curtains overhead, while locations on the auroral oval’s southern fringe—Atlanta, Dallas, San Francisco—have at least a faint chance of green or purple glows low on the northern horizon. Why the skies are glowing During Solar Cycle 25 the Sun has become increasingly active, and Friday’s eruptions hurled billions of tons of plasma toward Earth at more than a million miles per hour. When those charged particles slam into the upper atmosphere they excite oxygen and nitrogen atoms, releasing photons—the shimmering reds, greens and violets we call the aurora. The current storm ranks one notch below the most extreme G5 classification, powerful enough to disturb shortwave radio and induce extra electric current in long transmission lines, but also perfect for skywatchers across North America, northern Europe and parts of Asia. Best times and places to look • Peak activity is forecast between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. local time, when Earth’s magnetic midnight positions the viewer directly under the geomagnetic tail. • Get away from city lights; rural horizons free of haze or smoke will dramatically improve contrast. • Face north (or south if you are observing from the Southern Hemisphere, where a weaker aurora australis is also possible). • Check real-time KP index maps from SWPC; values of KP 7 or higher greatly expand the visible zone. Photography tips to capture the aurora 1. Use a tripod and set a fast wide-angle lens (f/2.8 or faster). 2. Begin with ISO 1600, a 5-to-10-second exposure and manual focus at infinity; adjust after reviewing a test shot. 3. Shoot in RAW to preserve dynamic range and color detail. 4. Include a foreground element—trees, a barn or city skyline—to give scale and context. 5. Turn off in-camera long-exposure noise reduction to speed up continuous shooting and catch rapidly shifting patterns. Safety and technology impacts While most disruptions remain minor, airline routes over polar regions may shift southward, high-frequency radio operators could notice fading or static, and geomagnetically induced currents can stress long power lines. Grid operators are monitoring conditions, but the current storm is not expected to cause widespread outages. Everyday electronics, smartphones and GPS receivers should function normally. What happens next? Solar activity is forecast to remain elevated for at least the next 36–48 hours as the CME train continues to buffet Earth’s magnetic shield. Another window for strong auroras opens Tuesday night if lingering plasma clouds connect efficiently with our planet’s magnetic field. Even if tonight’s clouds spoil the view, keep cameras ready; the Sun is only halfway to its predicted solar maximum in 2026, meaning more sky-filling light shows are likely in the coming months. Bottom line This is one of the best aurora opportunities of the decade for mid-latitude observers. Charge your camera batteries, head to a dark sky site, and look north—Mother Nature’s neon is clocking in for a rare shift over much of the United States, Europe and beyond.