Get Ready To Witness Possible Northern Lights Across Minnesota During Debate Night

Better coffee up -- Tuesday night is going to be busy.

Yep, there's a Presidential Debate in Philadelphia between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump. ABC News is hosting the 8 pm Central Time debate, but many networks will carry the debate live, too.

But no, this story isn't about the debate.

We're talking about the Northern Lights that are predicted to be seen in the northern tier of the United States on Debate Night.

The Space Weather Prediction Center -- a division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration -- has issued a G2 -- or Moderate -- Geomagnetic Storm Watch for Tuesday, September 10, 2024.

WHAT HAPPENED TO CAUSE THIS?

Our sun blasted out energized particles early on Sunday in a coronal mass ejection -- a "filament eruption."

Those particles are expected to hit Earth's atmosphere by around sunrise Tuesday morning in the Central Time Zone, midday UTC.

The Space Weather Prediction Center says those particles will likely cause moderate geomagnetic storming effects, which are not uncommon.

They continue:

"Any geomagnetic storming effects that linger into 11 Sep (UTC) will likely taper off into minor storming levels."

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WILL WE SEE NORTHERN LIGHTS?

The short answer is...maybe.

The Northern Lights are a little finicky about appearing, even when conditions are very good for their appearance.

In this case, the SWPC says "the aurora may become visible over some northern and upper Midwest states from New York to Idaho." They urge folks wanting to see the aurora borealis to visit the SWPC webpages for updates.

So if the fireworks from the Presidential Debate aren't enough for you, you might want to step outside to see if nature's fireworks are visible Tuesday night.

At this writing, the National Weather Service predicts partly cloudy skies over the St. Cloud area and 60-degrees for a low.