7 Responses to “Can you see the northern lights in minnesota?”

1. 

   tham153 said on December 13th, 2009 at 3:53 am

   In general, away from city light and with a clear sky and no bright Moon, Minnesota is a good area for observing the aurora. The website spaceweather.com covers solar phenomena, and has notices whenever there is a chance for an aurora. Sign up to get their notices.

2. 

   akra said on December 14th, 2009 at 2:24 am

   We had them visible in Flint, MI last winter. I’d think most of MN is as far north as we are.

3. 

   Ramma said on December 15th, 2009 at 7:00 am

   The further north you are, the more likely you are to see the northern lights. To better see them though, you need to not have much light glare or pollution in the sky, so larger cities they’ll be harder to see in, but more rural area’s they’ll be much easier.

   Northern lights are caused my solar flares, a good way to if there has been one is by checking out and they give warnings of solar flares on their main page. On the left you will also see a link to a picture of the current Aurora Oval (Aurora’s and Northern Lights are same thing), which shows you how visible they are from various area’s. I don’t live in the states, so i can’t really say if they’ll be visible from where you are.

4. 

   Old lady said on December 15th, 2009 at 1:32 pm

   Yes the more north that you get the better view you get of them. Minnesota is a great place to see them. anywhere in Minnesota you can see them not just in the twin cities.

5. 

   gort20022 said on December 16th, 2009 at 1:03 am

   I have seen the Aurora clearly from camp Ripley Minnesota, it was in January about 1980. So the short answer is yes.

6. 

   eri said on December 16th, 2009 at 2:50 am

   Sometimes, yes. The solar cycle of the Sun will be peaking in a few years, and we’ll get more flares that cause the northern lights then. But sometimes it happens at random as well. Check out this website for a map of the northern lights activity. It’s pretty tame right now.

7. 

   messenger 2012 said on December 18th, 2009 at 6:22 pm

   Yes. As a native of Minnesota, I have seen the Aurora on several occasions. In fact, they are so common that people generally don’t make much of a fuss about them. They are seen as far south as 35 degrees north latitude meaning all but the southernmost parts of the US will get a display. You don’t have to be in Alaska although the further north you are the more frequent they are. They actually center around Earth’s magnetic north pole not it’s geographic north so people of Siberia see them less frequently than North Americans. Periods following intense solar activity will cause auroral lights. In general, the lights peak in the months of september, march, october, and april. If you really want to plan ahead, the solar maximum during 2012-2014 should present some good opportunities. By the way, the southern hemisphere has them too called the southern lights or the aurora australis. Try

   Good Luck

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