You May Be Able to See the Northern Lights in California This Week
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A couple years ago we had an April Fools’ Day joke article saying that we’d be able to see the Northern Lights in San Francisco in the day time. People totally fell for it. Unfortunately, I don’t think we will ever be able to see the aurora borealis in San Francisco, day or night. There’s just too much light pollution. That said, it appears that we may be able to see them in Northern California this week.
As Clare Fonstein reports in the San Francisco Chronicle reports, due to solar activity, people in Northern California may get a peek at the the aurora borealis between midnight and dawn on Friday morning. That said, if it is visible it will likely only be a reddish glow in the sky.
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According to Travis Rector, a professor of astronomy and physics at the University of Alaska at Anchorage who was consulted for the Chronicle article, The aurora generally has a chance to be seen in the Golden State a few times a year, and had been witnessed as far south as Tucson, Arizona.
As Fonstein explains in the article:
“While the University of Alaska Fairbanks forecast does not predict the aurora making it to California, it is expected to reach Oregon in the hours after midnight, making it possibly visible on the horizon in northern California. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecasts that the aurora viewing line could extend to Pennsylvania, Iowa and Oregon, though still above the northernmost part of California.”
Ryan Wyatt, senior director for the California Academy of Sciences planetarium, says despite all that, Oregon and Washington will likely see it, but it may be a little optimistic to hope it reaches NorCal.
But, “Rector cautioned that the predictions are ‘hardly precise’ and have been off before.
Photo of the Northern Lights that I took a few years ago while flying over the arctic on my way to Copenhagen.
Why Can You Possibly see the Northern Lights in California?
According to an article by Jacqueline Pinedo in the Sacramento Bee, “Three eruptions occurred on the surface of the Sun on Monday and Tuesday that “sent solar material out into space,” said Shawn Dahl, a service coordinator at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center.”
How to See the Northern Lights in California
According to the Space Weather Prediction Center (which just sounds cool), the best way to see the Northern Lights is:
- Go someplace dark and outdoors away from all the city lights
- Aim to see the aurora within a couple hours of midnight.
