The Northern Lights Might Be Visible From Missouri This Year
By Beth Price-Williams|Published January 24, 2024
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Beth Price-Williams
Author
A professional writer for more than two decades, Beth has lived in nearly a dozen states – from Missouri and Virginia to Connecticut and Vermont – and Toronto, Canada. In addition to traveling extensively in the U.S. and the U.K., she has a BA in Journalism from Point Park University (PA), a MA in Holocaust & Genocide Studies from Stockton University (NJ), and a Master of Professional Writing from Chatham University (PA). A writer and editor for Only In Your State since 2016, Beth grew up in and currently lives outside of Pittsburgh and when she’s not writing or hanging out with her bunnies, budgies, and chinchilla, she and her daughter are out chasing waterfalls.
Have you ever walked outside after a long day, gazed up at the nighttime sky, and marveled at the twinkling of the stars? Sometimes all we need, especially when life moves at breakneck speed, is to take a few minutes to breathe in the nighttime air and stargaze. If we’re lucky, the evening sky leaps alive with meteor showers or even a stray shooting star. Make time to check out the nighttime sky this year because you might just be lucky enough to view the Northern Lights in 2024 in Missouri.
Even if we’ve not witnessed the colorful lights dancing in the nighttime sky in person, we’ve all seen videos and photos of the Northern Lights, or aurora borealis, a natural phenomenon that is most commonly seen in areas including Alaska, Canada, and Iceland.
However, that could change, at least temporarily, in 2024. Because of increased, strengthened solar activity, the Northern Lights are expected to be visible in areas in which they normally aren’t, including Missouri and other states in and above the 40th parallel. Experts believe the peak will occur in the fall.
While we may have heard and perhaps even seen the Northern Lights, we might not be familiar with why they occur. Aurora borealis occurs, as explained by the National Park Service, when “a coronal mass ejection (CME), a massive burst of solar wind and magnetic fields, interacts with elements in the earth's atmosphere.”
Three CMEs a day are generally produced by the sun during solar maximum compared to just one CME every three days during solar minimum. Solar maximum is the busiest time of the solar cycle; the cycle usually runs for 11 years.
At a speed of around one million miles an hour, solar winds travel between the sun and the earth. At between 20 and 200 feet above the surface of the earth, the electrons will either collide with oxygen or nitrogen atoms.
There are several ways to track when and where the Northern Lights will be visible in Missouri. Find a map on the official website of the NOAA Aurora 30-Minute Forecast. You can also download the My Aurora Forecast and Alerts app or the Aurora Alerts app on your smartphone to keep track of when the Northern Lights in 2024 in Missouri may be visible.
Have you seen the Northern Lights in Missouri, or elsewhere, in the past? What did you think? Share your experience in the comments! Whether you want to stargaze or hope to catch the Northern Lights, you’ll want to head somewhere with dark skies that are as free of light pollution as possible, including Broemmelsiek Park in Defiance, Missouri. Before you head out for an evening of stargazing, make sure you have binoculars.
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