Look Up! Northern Lights May Be Visible Over Missouri & Illinois!

The Northern Lights are a very hard sky phenomenon to predict. But, the current forecast says that these brilliant, colorful lights may be visible over most of Missouri and Illinois this weekend.

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I saw that there was a massive eruption of solar plasma a day or so ago (aka CME or coronal mass ejection). My wife then saw today a storm chaser who shared NOAA's Space Weather forecast for Saturday night, November 11, 2023. Note that the red line is the expected boundary where the Northern Lights will be visible.

I checked NOAA's Space Weather forecast and as of this writing, they're classifying this solar storm and possible Northern Lights event as a G-2 moderate event. The KP index is forecast to be as high as a 6 or a 7 for most of Missouri and Illinois.

There is one problem, however. The current National Weather Service forecast for Hannibal, Missouri and Quincy, Illinois is mostly cloudy as of now. Let's hope we get a break and have enough clear skies to see what could be an epic solar storm/Northern Lights moment.

This has already been an active year for Northern Lights visible over Missouri and Illinois. Back in September, much of Missouri was surprised to see Northern Lights and many places in Illinois saw them last weekend. Let's hope this is an even better repeat performance.

UPDATE (Saturday 6:13pm): The newest forecast from NOAA now shows the possibility of Northern Lights being further north than the original expectations. Cloud cover over much of the Midwest will also make viewing difficult.