Aurora Alert: Another Chance to See the Northern Lights in New York

The "monster sunspot" that produced historic auroras nationwide a few weeks ago is set to give planet Earth another show this week.

Most of Central New York was deprived of the chance to see the dazzling Northern lights last month because of heavy cloud coverage. Of course, the next time there was a chance to see them, the skies were even more overcast.

The silver lining in both instances is that New York has plenty more chances to see the aurora borealis due to an ongoing auroral blitz that is still approaching its peak.

Read More: 2024 Will Be the Greatest Year for Northern Lights in New York

Live Science has been tracking the "monster sunspot," dubbed active region 3664, that created that auroral blast a few weeks ago. This sunspot is 15-times wider than our planet and is capable of emitting supercharged particles.

Although the sunspot has been turned away from our planet, it hasn't stopped producing significant, record breaking solar flares. On May 20th, it produced an X12-rated flare, which is apparently its biggest yet.

That  sunspot will face the earth on June 6 and is expected to give us a good show, which is perfect since the next new moon falls on that night. However, it should take several days for the solar flares to reach earth's atmosphere, where they will hopefully produce an aurora borealis.

With the new moon in play, this elevates our chances of seeing even faint auroras because the lack of moonlight makes them easier to see. So if you want to finally catch the Northern lights, plan to do some stargazing in an area away from light pollution.

The current aurora forecast calls for moderate aurora tomorrow night, June 5, with just the most northern part of New York just barely making the "view line."

Should we again suffer more cloud cover, Live Science says not to worry. We still have plenty of chances to catch auroras this year.

While seeing more Northern Lights is a lovely thing, some experts are worried how the sun's activity could impact other functions of our daily lives.

Coronal mass ejections, or CMEs, are the explosion of the sun's plasma and magnetic material and they are strong enough to affect things like GPS signals and radio signals. It'll take a few more days for scientists to determine how strong of a geomagnetic storm this sunspot will produce when it faces us next.

Here's hoping the clouds stay far away for this next round.

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