The northern lights could return to New York in June 2024. What you need to know

Rochester could get another chance to see the northern lights in early June, when the enormous sunspot responsible for May’s spectacular aurora once again faces land.

The aurora, the light seen in the night sky due to electrons from space colliding with Earth’s upper atmosphere, is caused by interactions between the solar wind from the sun and the planet’s magnetic field. Geomagnetic storms, like those in May, can make the aurora brighter and appear farther from the poles.

According to NASA, the sun rotates on its axis approximately once every 27 days. This rotation means that features on our star’s surface, including sunspots, are not always facing Earth. The optimal dates for the Earth to be in line with these displays is June 4-6.

Sunspots can trigger coronal mass ejections, which are large eruptions of plasma and magnetic field from the sun’s outer atmosphere, known as the corona. When Earth is in the line of a coronal mass ejection, such as in May, it can trigger a spectacular and widespread display of the northern lights.

Another aspect that could improve aurora viewing on June 6 will be the new moon, which will remove a major source of light from the sky for anyone wishing to view or photograph the phenomenon.

The northern lights display in May not only reached Rochester, but regions as far south as California and the Southeast.

However, like any celestial event, viewing opportunities will depend on the weather, and AccuWeather’s too-early local forecast for June 6 calls for “considerable cloudiness,” a high chance of rain and thunderstorms.

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