Solar Storm Boosting Northern Lights

Bad news for telecommunications, good news for skywatchers: The sun is entering a busy period of its 11-year cycle, and solar flares are expect to affect the earth for the next several years, making the Northern Lights more spectacular and visible further south. A geomagnetic storm currently in progress is expected to make the aurora borealis visible as far south as Colorado tonight and potentially later in the week, reports the Los Angeles Times.

The solar storm has been brewing in a region known as Sunspot 1302, and the region is likely to remain active for at least the next three to five days, according to the Space Weather Prediction Center. Experts say that people in high latitudes hoping to see the Northern Lights are likeliest to catch a glimpse of the amazing light show around midnight, their time zone. (More aurora borealis stories.)