Northern lights this week? Some states might see them tonight

Are you willing to drive around 5 hours to see the northern lights?

The NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center issued a geomagnetic storm watch at a G3 level.

“At G3, the aurora may become visible over many of the northern states and some of the lower Midwest to Oregon,” the agency says.

As a reference, the geomagnetic storm in May where the aurora borealis was visible in Northern Colorado was forecasted to be G4 and eventually updated to G5 .

More: Many saw the northern lights last night. Here's what you might have missed

“We've had several solar flares over the weekend and some coronal mass ejections that appear to be earth-directed,” Mike Bettwy, operations chief at the National Weather Service, told the Coloradoan over email. “However, at this time, it doesn't appear that any of these are strong enough to cause aurora as far south as northern Colorado”

Bettwy added that to be able to see them, “most likely you'd have to drive rather far north - say perhaps to Sheridan, WY - and that's assuming the activity ramps up as currently forecast.”

According to the National Weather Service forecast for Sheridan , there’s widespread haze before noon and a 20% chance of showers after 3 p.m., however the sky should be mostly clear tonight.

Typically, the best time to see them is “ usually within an hour or two of midnight (between 10 PM and 2 AM local time) .”

If you can’t see them with the naked eye, it can also help using your phone's camera.

You can also check NOAA’s 30-minute forecast here .

This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Northern lights this week? Some states might see them tonight