Northern Lights in New England? Aurora forecast downgraded, but new solar flare erupts

By Terry Eliasen, WBZ-TV Meteorologist, Executive Weather Producer

BOSTON - The surface of the sun has become VERY active with sunspots in the last several days and weeks.

These sunspots have been erupting with solar flares in the last few days. The first of which we reported a few days ago, erupted Sunday night. Originally, some experts thought that this flare could cause some increased auroral activity across the northern-tier states Wednesday night. Those forecasts have been downgraded: Long story short, I wouldn't get your hopes up for seeing the Northern Lights Wednesday night anywhere in New England.

On Tuesday a new flare erupted from sunspot AR3372. This was the strongest ejection yet in this cycle (an M-6 class).

This NASA model, shows the flare beautifully:

While much of the CME will sail south of our planet, it does appear that late on Friday, some of the energy will strike Earth's magnetic field.

More to come on this in the next few days.

Again, I would urge caution before getting too excited about the chances of seeing an aurora anywhere near New England.

First, this is far from an ideal setup.

Second, even under the best scenarios, auroras are still quite rare this far south in latitude.

And finally, we expect lots of clouds and rain around here later this week.

We will certainly update you if anything changes. And, we will keep a close eye on the sun in the weeks to come as it seems to be entering a particularly active phase.