Keep your eyes to the sky Thursday night | iNFOnews | Thompson-Okanagan's News Source
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Kamloops News

Keep your eyes to the sky Thursday night

The northern lights could dance above the Okanagan Thursday night.
Image Credit: Mike Mueller Photo via Twitter

THOMPSON-OKANAGAN - If the skies stay clear, and they are supposed to, we could be in a for a great northern lights show Thursday night.

The National Space Weather Prediction Center says a ‘moderate’ storm is expected to hit Earth late Thursday night (in the Pacific time zone) before downgrading to a ‘minor’ storm in to the early morning hours.

The auroras are expected to light up the sky as far south as the United States and luckily for us, Mother Nature is expected to cooperate in the Southern Interior.

While Kamloops can expect a little bit of cloud cover to move in Thursday night the rest of the region is expected to remain clear. Of course lows of 4-6 Celsius means you should probably dress warmly if you want to fully enjoy the light display.

The best place to view the dancing lights is away from light pollution, so typically far enough outside of cities or towns for it to be dark. Of course a nearly full moon may prevent it from being too dark this week.

Northern lights occur when electrically charged particles discharged from the sun come in contact with the gaseous particles in Earth's atmosphere. Collisions with oxygen create yellowish-green, while contact with nitrogen creates hues of blue, purple and red.

To contact a reporter for this story, email Jennifer Stahn at jstahn@infonews.ca or call 250-819-3723. To contact an editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.

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