If you woke up Friday morning with an extreme sense of FOMO after seeing photos of the Northern Lights on social media, rest assured: you might get another chance to see them with your own eyes tonight.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center extended its warning through Friday evening, warning that operators of satellite navigation, power grids and telecommunications systems could experience disruptions from the geomagnetic storm, along with a colorful light show.

“Aurora can be seen as low as Pennsylvania, Iowa and Oregon,” the warning said.

It will be possible to see faint colors in northern Colorado on Friday evening, scientists at the center said.

The agency, headquartered in Boulder, expects Friday’s storm and its impacts to be slightly less intense than Thursday night’s G4 storm — a four out of five on the geomagnetic storm scale. Forecasters predict a G3 storm on Friday, which could cause low-frequency radio navigation problems or false alarms on some devices, according to NOAA’s scale.

The Northern Lights dazzled the night sky on Thursday evening, with people from across the country reporting seeing – and photographing – shimmering curtains of red, purple and green.

“As far as Colorado goes, you’re much less likely to see it tonight, but there is a chance, a little weaker, perhaps much further north in Colorado, to catch a glimpse of it, if conditions are good tonight. be favorable for a short period of time,” Shawn Dahl, a service coordinator at NOAA’s Space and Weather Prediction Center, said Friday morning.

The afternoon clouds are expected to clear by evening, allowing for ideal sky views, said Bernie Meier, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service Office in Boulder.

“Weather wise it looks like a good night. We will have mostly clear skies and given the fall, the weather will be a bit cool,” Meier said. “Another nice evening considering this time of year.”

Where can you see the Northern Lights in Colorado on Friday?

If the northern lights are visible Friday evening, the best time to catch them is in northern Colorado, in areas near Fort Collins and the Wyoming border, Dahl said.

Colors were seen Thursday in areas of Colorado where it is unusual to see such intense colors. Viewers reported light shows as far south as Florida.

As the storm weakens, colors are less likely to be as intense as Thursday or as far south, Dahl said.

“Our main expectation is that things will weaken, and that will reduce the possibility of seeing it further south in Colorado,” he said.

What causes the aurora in Colorado?

Auroras are caused when strong explosions of solar particles and magnetic fields, hurtling through space, bombard the magnetic fields surrounding the Earth and interact with gases in the atmosphere.

The blast, known as a coronal mass ejection, was launched by a solar flare earlier this week and headed directly toward Earth, Dahl said, adding that the storm’s intensity will ultimately depend on how the fields in the magnetic cloud are oriented when it is located. affects magnetic fields around the Earth.

“So it was pretty easy to predict an Earth effect from this, but the timing and the intensity are always much more difficult and challenging to figure out,” Dahl said.

Will there be other chances to see the Northern Lights in Colorado?

“There’s no doubt about it,” Dahl said.

Although the aurora borealis phenomenon is relatively rare, the current solar cycle — an 11-year cycle in which the sun alternates between active and quiet — is very active, Dahl said.

The current cycle could increase the chances of people in Colorado and other places in the U.S. to see the Northern Lights until 2026, he said.

The Sun is currently experiencing a period of increased activity, which typically happens about halfway through the Sun’s 11-year cycle.

“We are in the grip of the solar maximum and that is why this is happening more and more often. This cycle has been quite active, much more active than originally predicted six years ago,” Dahl said.

The May light show was caused by a G-5 geomagnetic storm, he said. The colors you see during an aurora depend on the gas mixture in the atmosphere. Red is often seen during the strongest geomagnetic storms and is created when solar particles interact with oxygen at higher altitudes, according to Space.com.

“We’re going to be in this continued ride through the maximum for the rest of this year, through 2025 and even into 2026, before things really settle down.”

What other effects does a geomagnetic storm have on Earth?

In addition to predicting beautiful light shows, scientists at NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center monitor geomagnetic storms to help communicate potential impacts to people who rely on radio and GPS to operate critical infrastructure.

“Sometimes it can mean the collapse of a system if it’s very extreme and outright, meaning they’re not taking protective measures,” Dahl says.

Ahead of Thursday’s G-4 geomagnetic storm, scientists at the center spoke with officials from the White House, FEMA and other emergency managers helping people in Florida in the aftermath of Hurricane Milton.

Some planes had significant disruptions to their navigation systems and had to rely on other methods to navigate, Dahl said, adding that he was not aware of any safety issues.

More tips to increase your chances of seeing a light show tonight in Colorado

• According to NOAA, the best times to see the Northern Lights are between 10 PM and 2 AM. But because it gets darker earlier, Dahl said colors could be seen earlier, about two hours after sunset.
• Get away from city lights. The best aurora is visible without artificial light.
• Try to view from a high vantage point, such as a hill, with an unobstructed view to the north.
• Sometimes the lights can be invisible to the naked eye. To capture the colors on your smartphone, use a stable tripod, dim your screen and adjust the exposure time between 10 and 15 seconds, the Icelandic tourism website Visit Iceland suggests.