NORFOLK, Va. — An unusually strong solar storm headed toward Earth could produce supercharged northern lights across the U.S. and potentially disrupt communications this weekend.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) issued a rare geomagnetic storm watch — the first in nearly 20 years. The watch starts Friday and lasts all weekend.
NOAA said the sun produced strong solar flares beginning Wednesday, resulting in five outbursts of plasma capable of disrupting satellites in orbit and power grids here on Earth. Each eruption — known as a coronal mass ejection (CME) — can contain billions of tons of solar plasma.
NOAA is calling this an unusual event, pointing out that the flares seem to be associated with a sunspot that’s 16 times the diameter of Earth. The storm could produce northern lights as far south in the U.S. as Alabama and Northern California, according to NOAA.
Here's what we can expect in coastal Virginia, according to Mike Bettwy, the Operations Chief at NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center.
Visibility of northern lights and the forecast:
Bettwy said the Hampton Roads area has "a fairly good shot" at seeing Northern Lights this weekend. If he had to put a number on it: "between a 40 and 50 percent" chance, "given our latitude and what's happening right now [on the sun's surface] and the potential for it to get worse."
The Outer Banks have a little lower chance, due to being further south.
While both Friday and Saturday could bring viewing opportunities for aurora borealis, Bettwy said tonight is the better shot. However, that all depends on the weather, particularly cloud cover.
WEEKEND FORECAST: Showers and a few storms possible later Friday
The 13News Now Weather Team is expecting considerable cloud cover and scattered rain showers across the region Friday night. Saturday evening is expected to be partly cloudy with some rain showers possible.
Additionally, more rural areas with less light pollution — like western Hampton Roads — will provide better visibility.
Are power outages, connectivity issues possible?
Bettwy said some areas along the East Coast, from D.C. up to Boston, as well as states in the northern Midwest are most susceptible to infrastructure impacts from the solar storm.
However, he said, it is "highly unlikely that [Hampton Roads] would see any impact to power, based on mitigations [that power operators] are taking already."
NOAA has been in contact with all North American power grid operators, and they are already taking action to account for the effects of the solar storm.
If Hampton Roads does see any impact, it would be short-term glitches in power service, internet connectivity, GPS and cell phone connectivity.
Bettwy said people can go to spaceweather.gov to monitor the storm and get updates on how it's progressing throughout the weekend.