There's a 'Chance' Pittsburgh area sees the Northern Lights Friday

There is another chance Western Pennsylvania will get to experience the Northern Lights Friday evening into Saturday.

A “major” solar flare was detected from the sun on Thursday. The Coronal Mass Ejection from the sun, or “highly magnetized plasma” erupts from the sun and can cause a geomagnetic storm in the Earth’s upper atmosphere.

When that CME interacts with the upper atmosphere and the gases there, it causes light.

The stronger the CME, the bigger the light show.

“Tonight, there is a change for those to be seen here,” said KDKA-TV meteorologist Ray Petelin.

Petelin says “there looks to be enough of those charged particles for it to at least get close” to the Pittsburgh area, but adds a lot of things need to go right for the Northern Lights to be seen here.

So, he reiterates, there is a “chance.”

If you want to make some time to try to catch a glimpse of the aurora borealis, the best chance is between 10 p.m. to 2 p.m. but Petelin says you could see it any time its dark.

Some other things Petelin says if you want to try to see them.

Make sure you are looking north, let your eyes adjust, look toward the horizon and make sure there is as little as light pollution around as possible.

The Carnegie Science Center tells KDKA Radio that seeing the Northern Lights in the Pittsburgh area is “unlikely” and that NOAA is predicting the lights to reach the northern edge of the United States.

But, you’ll never know unless you look up and try to see for yourself.