Northern Lights Visible this Weekend in West Tennessee! Solar Storm Upgraded to Extreme Level 5
WBBJ 7 Forecast Update
Friday Night Update on Solar Storm:
At 7pm NOAA upgraded the solar storm to a level 5. Northern lights have already been visible in West Tennessee as of 9PM Friday night!
WEDNESDAY NIGHT STORM UPDATE:
WBBJ 7 Forecast Update:
An unusually strong solar storm hitting Earth could produce northern lights in the U.S. and potentially disrupt power and communications this weekend. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued a rare severe geomagnetic storm warning Friday. The agency says the sun is producing strong solar flares and has hurled at least seven outbursts of plasma our way. NOAA has alerted operators of power plants and spacecraft in orbit to take precautions. NOAA says the storm could produce northern lights as far south as Alabama and Northern California.
This storm — ranked 4 on a scale of 1 to 5 — poses a risk for high-voltage transmission lines for power grids, not the electrical lines ordinarily found in people’s homes. Satellites also could be affected, which in turn could disrupt navigation and communication services here on Earth.Even when the storm is over, signals between GPS satellites and ground receivers could be scrambled or lost, according to NOAA. But there are so many navigation satellites that any outages should not last long.
The sun has produced strong solar flares since Wednesday, resulting in at least seven outbursts of plasma. Each eruption — known as a coronal mass ejection — can contain billions of tons of plasma and magnetic field from the sun’s outer atmosphere, or corona. The flares seem to be associated with a sunspot that’s 16 times the diameter of Earth, according to NOAA. It’s all part of the solar activity that’s ramping up as the sun approaches the peak of its 11-year cycle.
TONIGHT:
Friday shaped up to be the best day of the week in West Tennessee. Rain stayed away and it was not be overly hot or humid. The winds on Friday came out of the north allowing high temperatures to only reach up to around 70°. Friday night will also be a tad cool with temperatures falling down to around 50° to kick off the weekend. We saw partly cloudy skies in Friday but the clouds are expecting to clear out tonight. In general, the less cloud cover, the better chance you will have of seeing the northern lights. Rain is not in the forecast for us on Friday night. The models show the auroral activity underway around sunset local time Friday evening but the latest forecast also doesn’t have the strongest part of the storm arriving until 1-5am CT. The best advice at this point is to look to the north (darker skies are best).
THE WEEKEND:
Another system may try to move through on Saturday but it looks like the rain will likely stay just to the north of West Tennessee. Highs on Saturday will try to rebound back to the mid to upper 70s and the winds will come out of the northwest. Saturday night lows will drop down to the mid 50s.
Sunday could be a little warmer but it will depend on how fast the winds change back to the south late in the day. The current forecast for Sunday is highs in the upper 70s to near 80° and Sunday night lows dipping down to the upper 50s. Sunday looks dry as of now and the winds will chance from the west to the south. Another system looks to be on track for next Monday and southerly winds may try to increase the humidity a bit after a dry weekend. Rain chances look to come back early next week to West Tennessee.
NEXT WEEK:
A weak system will look to push through late in the day on Monday and could bring some rain showers with it. If we do see some storms mixing in they are not expected to be strong or severe. Rain chances and some storm activity will likely continue on Tuesday before clearing out on Wednesday. The break in the showers will be short lived and another round of rain is expected to move through on Thursday. Highs will reach the upper 70s to kick off the week and morning lows will linger around in the low 60s. Temperatures in the 80s will look to return in the middle of the week due to some breezy southerly winds. Our severe weather threat looks quite low next week but there will be a few round of showers and weak storms. Expect more clouds than sun next week but there will be a mix of both at times as well.
FINAL THOUGHT:
The best chance to see the northern lights in about 20 years is coming this weekend, with late Friday night into Saturday morning appearing to be the best time to see them. We are going to see below normal temperatures behind the front that will probably stick around through the weekend. If you plan on heading to the Strawberry Festival parade on Friday, you will not need to the umbrella but might was a long sleeve or light jacket if you get cold easily. Rain showers will stay away through the weekend but will be returning early next week. As of now, the severe weather threat looks quite low for West Tennessee next week.
For tips on preparing for the storms, click here. To download the WBBJ 7 Weather app, click here.
Storm Team Chief Meteorologist
Joel Barnes
Facebook: @JoelBarnesWeather
Twitter: @JoelBarnes13
Instagram: @joelbarnes13
