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One of the most phenomenal celestial events of the year is scheduled to grace New York’s sky tomorrow morning and believe us when we tell you that, if you don’t properly get ready for it, you will miss it.
The Northern Lights, also known as Aurora Borealis, consist of the nighttime light display caused by, according to Space.com, "energized particles from the sun [slamming] into Earth's upper atmosphere at speeds of up to 45 million miles per hour."
The result? A light show that looks like colorful curtains were draped across the sky, flickering and spiraling just so.
People from all over the world travel to Iceland, Finland and Norway to catch the beautiful happening, so being able to potentially see it from New York (if the constant rain lets up) is something to take advantage of.
To that intent, here is our guide to the best way of catching the Northern Lights in New York early tomorrow morning.
When will the Northern Lights be visible in NYC?
To be clear, a number of experts recently noticed the after-effects of a "halo CME."
"A CME is a cloud of magnetic fields and charged particles from the sun that stream into space at up to 1,900 per second," explains Forbes.
According to Space.com, the phenomenon has prompted the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Center to issue a storm watch for tomorrow, Wednesday, July 24.
Although the alert also covers New York areas, no timing specifics have been announced, just that it’ll happen in the early hours.
"Recent predictions anticipate the arrival window in the early hours of July 24, but there is a level of uncertainty about the exact timings," reports Space.com.
The best time to see the Aurora Borealis in NYC
According to yesterday's alert, "displays of Northern Lights could be seen over some northern and upper Midwest U.S. states from New York to Idaho between 06:00-09:00 Universal Time on July 24—that's 01:00-04:00 EDT," reports Forbes.
Generally speaking, the Northern Lights are seen best at night/early morning. The darker, the better. So stay away from any place that might be polluted air-wise and try to find a swath of vast open sky to stare at instead.
Also to keep in mind is that you will be more likely to catch a glimpse of the happening in the northernmost areas of New York.
Where else in the U.S. will see the Northern Lights this week?
According to Forbes, in addition to New York, folks might be able to see the spectacular Aurora Borealis from Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin.
What causes the Northern Lights?
We won't bother you with all the technical details but here are a few fun facts about the Aurora Borealis, according to NASA:
- Although best seen at night, the event is actually caused by the sun
- The Sun sends energy and small particles towards the Earth pretty steadily
- Sometimes, those storms actually travel down the protective magnetic field that surrounds the Earth and interact with gases in our atmosphere—producing a beautiful light display that we refer to as the Aurora Borealis