Canada's meteorological experts are predicting another intense Northern Light show over much of the Canadian and North American skies Thursday night.
AccuWeather Network officials are using reports from the US-based National Weather Service's Space Weather Prediction Centre to call for heightened effects of the aurora borealis across much of North America, going as far south as southern California and Alabama on Thursday night. Almost all of Canada is expected to be under the strongest dome of light created by a severe geomagnetic solar storm. The colourful auroras, which have been taking place for the last week, are due to the peak of what scientists say is an 11 year cycle of solar activity.
According to the National Weather Service, the Northern Lights are created "when the energized particles from coronal mass ejections reach Earth’s magnetic field, they interact with gases in the atmosphere to create those different colored lights in the sky."
Data shown on the Aurora Dashboard at the National Weather Service website shows that increased activity is expected to create visible auroras across most of Canada for the next three nights.