The Northern Lights could light up the Coachella Valley sky Saturday evening. Here’s where to go

A rare and powerful solar storm reached Earth Friday evening, giving Californians — San Diego And Great Bear Lake has Yucaipa And He met — a rare opportunity to witness the Northern Lights. Coachella Valley residents might even get another chance to marvel at the Northern Lights lighting up the night sky Saturday.

“It will be possible again tonight,” said Casey Oswant, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. “It looks like the strength of this event will be similar to last night, so we could see (the Northern Lights) as far south.”

However, Oswant said the northern lights might not persist all night, but appear intermittently. “It depends on what time of night people are watching, but it seems like it’s possible,” she said.

For example, on Friday evening, some observed the Northern Lights between 10:30 p.m. and closer to midnight. With clear skies predicted for Saturday, we’re crossing our fingers that desert dwellers can join in the excitement.

Where and when am I most likely to see the Northern Lights tonight?

All Coachella Valley residents have a chance to witness this rare event from home on Saturday, but if they want to have better luck, they should head as north and as far from the city lights as they can. wish.

AccuWeather senior meteorologist Tom Kines told USA TODAY that peak visibility time Saturday night will be between 9 p.m. and midnight, with a chance until 2 a.m. The best views will be in dark areas, away from city light pollution, he said, although some reported seeing the aurora Friday night from metropolitan areas like Milwaukee and Detroit.

What is causing the Northern Lights this weekend?

NASA describes an aurora as “a complex dance of elements and magnetism between the Sun and Earth,” and the spectacle is caused by a geomagnetic storm that erupts from a sunspot cluster on the sun.

These flares occur primarily at a large, complex cluster of sunspots, NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center said. Sunspots, which wax and wane in an 11-year cycle, are areas where the magnetic field is about 2,500 times stronger than Earth’s.

The storm was unusually strong – classified as an “extreme” (or G5) storm, the highest level, the Space Weather Prediction Center said Friday evening. This is the first G5 storm to hit our planet since 2003.

The effects of the geomagnetic storm are likely to persist until Sunday.

“Power grid irregularities and degradations in high-frequency communications and GPS have been reported,” the Space Weather Prediction Center said in an update Saturday morning.

A previous USA TODAY report was used in this story.

Jennifer Cortez covers education in the Coachella Valley. Contact her at jennifer.cortez@desertsun.com.

This article was originally published on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Northern lights could light up Palm Springs area skies Saturday evening.