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Updraft® - Minnesota Weather News
Paul Huttner

Aurora watch: Strong solar storms may trigger northern lights this weekend

Possible aurora outbreak this weekend

Aurora forecast
Aurora forecast for Saturday night
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Space Weather Prediction Center

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This weekend brings mainly sunny blue skies and some pretty colors across Minnesota.

Fall colors at the Huttner Weather Lab
Fall colors at the Weather Lab
Paul Huttner | MPR News

But the best sky show may occur at night. There’s a pretty good chance for some northern lights this weekend. Right now, it looks like the best chance may occur Saturday night. But some auroras are already vibing in Europe Friday night.

Solar storms

The sun has been active the past few weeks. This week produced some of the strongest solar storms in as much as 15 years.

Those strong coronal mass ejections are heading for Earth this weekend. Spaceweather.com has more detail on the solar storms.

Solar storm
Solar storms
NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center

The most potent CME (#2 in the graphic above) is expected to arrive during the late hours of Oct. 5th (UTC). This could spark a strong strong G3-class geomagnetic storms with auroras at mid-latitudes. For observers in the USA, this means the night of Oct. 5-6.

The other two CMEs (#1 and #3) are less potent. By themselves they might not cause much of a storm. At this time of year, however, even weak CMEs can be effective due to the autumnal Russell-McPherron effect. The collective effect all three CMEs could therefore cause strong storms throughout the forecast interval. 

If they strike Earth’s magnetosphere with the right orientation, we could be in for a vivid sky show.

So keep an eye out for possible northern lights through the weekend. Best viewing conditions are always away from city lights with a good (dark) view to the north. But some indications are auroras could be overhead this weekend if the show explodes.

Windy weekend

Highs Saturday will warm back into the 80s south and 60s to 70s north and central on gusty south winds to 30 mph.

Forecast high temperatures Saturday
Forecast high temperatures Saturday
NOAA

A cold front arrives Saturday night, and Sunday brings gusty winds to 30 mph from the northwest with temperatures about 20 degrees cooler!

Forecast high temperatures Sunday
Forecast high temperatures Sunday
NOAA
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