Comments on: Can you see the northern lights in minnesota?

By: messenger 2012

messenger 2012 — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 18:22:50 +0000

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

By: eri

eri — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 02:50:03 +0000

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.

By: gort20022

gort20022 — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 01:03:09 +0000

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

By: Old lady

Old lady — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 13:32:54 +0000

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.

By: Ramma

Ramma — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 07:00:30 +0000

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.

By: akra

akra — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 02:24:02 +0000

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

By: tham153

tham153 — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 03:53:40 +0000

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.