Watch CBS News

Aurora borealis possible in southern New England Thursday night

Northern Lights put on a show
Northern Lights put on a show 00:21

By Terry Eliasen, WBZ-TV Meteorologist, Executive Weather Producer

What if I told you that right now, there is a large mass of super-charged particles headed straight for Earth?  Before you head for your doomsday bunker, let me assure you that this is nothing all that rare or concerning, but instead, the product of a sunspot and solar flare.

Let's back up a minute...

Back on Sunday, May 7, a coronal mass ejection occurred from the surface of the sun. This explosion of particles was ejected out of sunspot AR3296 in a solar flare. Again, this is not all that uncommon, especially during periods when the sun is in an active phase like it is now.

What is quite unusual about this particular flare is that it came from a sunspot with a reverse polarity, something that only occurs in a tiny percentage of recorded sunspots. It is easily spotted on this picture of the sun courtesy of NASA as that area of blue (revered polarity) among all the other, smaller sunspots in yellow and orange.

sun-spot.jpg
There was a coronal mass ejection on the sun earlier this week. NASA

OK, so what does this mean for us? This explosion was deemed a medium-strength 1.5-class solar flare. The fact that it was primarily directed toward Earth means that we COULD be treated to an aurora borealis overnight Thursday!

Now for some context. . . I have probably written more of these aurora blogs than I care to remember over the years and very rarely do we actually get to see anything here in southern New England. You would have a much greater chance of seeing the dancing lights in northern New England and up in Canada. But, sometimes we get lucky!

aurora-possible.jpg
WBZ-TV graphic CBS Boston

If you happen to find yourself out and about Thursday night with a clear (cloudless) sky, take a look up, can't hurt!  You will have a better chance if you have a clear, unobstructed view to the north with little or no artificial light around.

And, as always, if you do happen to see something, snap a pic and send it to our weather team at WBZ! Just go to WBZ.com and click on weather - send photos

Good luck!

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.