BLOG: Fireworks and More in the Sky for New Year's Eve?
by Kate Bilo
It's been ten full days since our last mostly sunny day in Philadelphia, and many are willing to trade in some of this December warmth for a little bit of sunshine. We'll make that trade as we wrap up 2015, with sunshine finally returning to the forecast on Thursday.
Quiet conditions will stick around through the New Year's Weekend, with temperatures pretty seasonable for early January, highs in the low 40s and lows around freezing. If you plan to head out on the town to ring in 2016, expect a midnight temperature around 40 degrees - chilly, but certainly not as cold as it could be!
In addition to fireworks lighting up the night sky on the last day of the year, some places around the country could see a natural light show in the form of Aurora Borealis, the Northern Lights. NOAA has issued a strong geomagnetic storm warning for an imminent disturbance in the magnetosphere. A geomagnetic storm occurs when large amounts of solar energy travel from the sun into Earth's atmosphere, and strong solar winds approach Earth's surface. While this storm may produce beautiful colors in the northernmost tier of the nation (likely not in our area), strong geomagnetic storms like this one do have the potential to interfere with power systems and GPS devices. While it would be unusual to experience anything like this in our area, it's interesting to consider that a strong storm is taking place just overhead in our atmosphere right now!