Double CME Eruption Could Mean Northern Lights Over Illinois

The sun has suddenly gotten active and that could result in a brilliant display of lights over Illinois later this week - maybe.

According to Space Weather, the sun just unleashed a double eruption of coronal mass ejections. Normally, a CME comes from a sunspot, but these did not. Both blasts were spotless CME's that happened over the weekend and their arrival on Earth could mean the aurora borealis will be visible as far south as Illinois.

The initial report estimated that the CME's would begin impacting Earth on Wednesday, April 16, but NOAA's Aurora Borealis Dashboard shows that the Northern Lights may be visible as early as Tuesday, April 15.

That red line shows where the aurora borealis will be visible on the horizon while the green and red show areas that can see the Northern Lights overhead. It will be interesting what the Wednesday forecast looks like once NOAA updates that on Tuesday morning.

Be aware that for the Northern Lights to be visible as far south as Illinois, the skies need to be clear and the timing of the CME impact needs to be right. That's one reason why we don't see the Northern Lights often since so many variables need to be right, but there's a better than average chance that the middle of this week could be special in the skies above us.