SEATTLE — The northern lights may appear in the night sky on Thanksgiving night and on Friday, but unfortunately, it's unlikely we'll see them in western Washington.
The Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) is calling for a geomagnetic storm to hit Earth's atmosphere on Thursday and last into Friday.
The storm is expected to be minor to moderate, only registering as a G1 to G2 on a scale of 1-5.
On the KP scale - which measures the intensity of the aurora borealis - the storm will measure as a KP 5, which is moderate. The view line for the northern lights is all the way into southern Washington on Thursday, meaning most of the state will have the opportunity to see it - if it weren't for cloud cover in the way.
Although Thanksgiving day will be dry, conditions are expected to be mostly cloudy, aside from a few sun breaks, according to KING 5 Meteorologist Rich Marriott. Clouds will clear into Friday, but northern lights viewing chances will likely taper off by then.
The geomagnetic storm which is expected to hit Earth's atmosphere on Thursday actually left the surface of the sun on Monday, Nov. 25.
The storm is the result of a filament eruption. A filament is a loop of plasma gas that extends outward from the surface of the sun surrounded by its own magnetic field. Sometimes, these filaments can break away from the sun, and send huge amounts of solar material hurtling off into space. When that material collides with the Earth's atmosphere, the particles glow different colors as they shed energy. This is what creates the northern lights.