BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — The rise in Northern Light displays doesn't look like it will stop anytime soon, so if you didn't get an opportunity to see it in Western New York last week, your chances are high to see it again!
Your next chance to see it again will actually be this weekend, as long as weather conditions cooperate.
WATCH: Another chance of seeing the Northern Lights in Western New York this weekend
But your chances won't end there, they will continue over the next couple of years!
That's because the sun is in its Solar Maximum cycle and it may be locked in place through 2026.
During the sun’s natural 11-year cycle, the sun shifts from relatively calm to stormy, then back again. At its most active, called the solar maximum, the sun is freckled with sunspots.
This activity sparks coronal mass ejections, which are explosions of plasma and magnetic material shooting out of the sun. When they hit Earth’s magnetic field, currents send particles flowing to the north and south poles, and that’s what causes the aurora, or Northern Lights, to appear in our skies. The stronger the geomagnetic storm, the further south the phenomenon is visible and that's the reason we can now see them in WNY.
The Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) keeps a close eye on active regions of the sun. Once the coronal mass ejections reach about 1 million miles from Earth, scientists can take much more accurate measurements and make good predictions about when the aurora may be seen.
A good display may last between 15 and 30 minutes, although, on occasion, it could extend to a couple of hours or longer. It's important to be in a dark open place with clear to partly cloudy sky conditions.
Simply put, aurora occurrence is dependent on solar activity. The more active the sun, the higher the chance of spectacular aurora shows, and great news it's what we can expect over the next few years.
Increased solar activity will cause the northern lights to be visible in places they are rarely seen.
The peak of this Solar Maximum cycle is predicted to happen somewhere between now and March 2026.
So again, if you didn't get a chance to see the Northern Lights, you will likely have more opportunities to witness it again for a long time to come.
