Northern Lights Possible Sunday Over Metro Detroit, Northern U.S.

The Northern Lights may be visible tonight as far south as Detroit late Sunday night and early Monday morning as a result of a geomagnetic storm from the sun. Other northern U.S. cities that could see the aurora borealis are Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Chicago, Buffalo and Boston, according to NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center. Most of the northern tier of U.S. states and Canada will see the phenomenon.

The best viewing times are 11 p.m.-2 a.m., and remote locations with darker skies are best. (For more local news, click here to sign up for real-time news alerts and newsletters from Detroit Patch, click here to find your local Michigan Patch. Also, like us on Facebook, and if you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

It’s all weather permitting, of course. Partly cloudy skies are forecast for metro Detroit.

The solar flare that increased the chances for an aurora display exploded on the sun late Thursday and early Friday morning, throwing a huge cloud of solar particles into space. According to the Weather Network, x-rays sent out by the solar storm knocked out radio power over parts of Asia.

Photo by Uriel Sinai/Getty Images News/Getty Images