Folks across the far northern U.S. could have a treat tonight: the appearance of the aurora borealis, aka northern lights, in the night sky.

Thanks to a recent strong geomagnetic storm from the sun, the aurora might be visible in several northern states. 

The storm is rated a “G3,” which is the third level of NOAA’s five-level solar storm scale. (G1 storms are minor, while G5s are considered extreme.) 

The colorful aurora forms when the particles flowing from the sun get caught up in the Earth’s magnetic field. The particles interact with molecules of atmospheric gases to cause the famed glowing red and green colors of the aurora.

In the United States, the northern lights may be seen as far south as Oregon, Pennsylvania, Iowa, and Massachusetts. Cloud cover from parts of the Upper Midwest into the interior Northeast may impede viewing, but skies should be clear across much of the Northern Plains through the northern Rockies. Sky cover will vary in the Pacific Northwest.

The geomagnetic activity began around Monday when one angry sunspot spurred a flurry of activity. Appearing as a dark spot, a sunspot is a region where the magnetic field is particularly strong on the sun.

When the magnetic field lines tangle or cross, it can cause an explosion of energy called a solar flare. In this case, sunspot 2975 produced more than a dozen solar flares in 24 hours, impressing solar physicists.

The two Earth-directed eruptions have merged into a “cannibal coronal mass ejection” and are barreling toward us at 1,881,263 mph (3,027,599 km/h). When it crashes into the Earth’s magnetic field from the night of March 30 to April 1, the result will be a powerful G3 geomagnetic storm, according to The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC).

G3 storms are classified as strong geomagnetic storms, meaning that the oncoming sun blast could bring the aurora as south as Pennsylvania, Iowa, and Oregon.

The sunspot, called AR2975, has been shooting out flares of electrically charged particles from the sun’s plasma soup since Monday (March 28).

Sunspots are areas on the sun’s surface where powerful magnetic fields, created by the flow of electrical charges, knot into kinks before suddenly snapping. The resulting release of energy launches bursts of radiation called solar flares, or explosive jets of solar material called coronal mass ejections (CMEs).  

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