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Northern lights in Florida? There's a chance tonight

Posted on by Vanessa
Northern lights in Florida? There's a chance tonight

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Could the Northern Lights hit Tallahassee twice?

Florida's capital could be graced with a second Northern Lights show, although local National Weather Service meteorologists say to keep your expectations low but your hopes high.

The opportunity comes as another powerful solar eruption hurtles through the cosmos toward Earth, bringing with it the potential to produce striking auroras in the night sky around the planet, according to USA TODAY.

The dazzling display of green and red hues, also known as the aurora borealis, may appear further south due to a “severe” geomagnetic storm predicted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

A coronal mass ejection of plasma clouds and charged particles powering the storm prompted NOAA's Space Prediction Center to issue a rare G4-class geomagnetic storm watch for the second time this year.

The last time such an observation occurred was on May 10, when Tallahassee caught a glimpse of it.

Coincidentally, today's solar storm comes just hours after a massive storm, Hurricane Milton, devastated central Florida. The latest bout of northern lights in the Deep South came hours after another national disaster, the major tornado outbreak in Tallahassee.

How to watch and the best time frame

In their social media post, NWS forecasters explained, “If auroras can reach this far south, they are usually very faint.” Therefore, the best way to see them is with long exposure photography; Taking a photo from your phone in night mode works the same way.

To get the full experience, it's best to stay away from the city lights and head to a place with dark skies.

As for the best time frame?

“Unfortunately, predicting the timing of the auroras is much more difficult than predicting the weather,” NWS forecasters say. “The best advice is to go to a dark sky and stay outside for several hours, as the northern lights can come and go within an hour.”

Overnight in Tallahassee there will be just 5% cloud cover with temperatures in the 70s and dipping into the 60s.

“Will we see something like this again?” the agency wrote on Facebook. “Nobody knows for sure, but at least the weather will be nice!”

Arianna Otero is a city solutions reporter for the Tallahassee Democrat. Contact her via email at [email protected] or on Twitter/X: @ari_v_otero.

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