A severe geomagnetic storm may bring the northern lights, or aurora borealis, back to New York City Wednesday night.
NASA said it had monitored a solar flare Tuesday and classified it as a G4. The highest level of geomagnetic storm is G5, extreme.
The G4 solar flare is expected to hit Earth around midday Wednesday. Official caution it may cause disruptions to communication infrastructure like satellites, GPS systems and other technology, including, potentially, power grid stability. The storms cause the disruptions by interfering with Earth’s magnetic field
Aurora forecast map for Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025.
NOAA/Space Weather Prediction Center
It may also mean that the northern lights might be visible in and around the Big Apple.
CBS News New York
New York City obviously contends with a lot of light pollution, which may make for challenging conditions to see the northern lights. However the Big Apple, most of New Jersey and all of Connecticut are in the zone in which it is considered “possible” to see them this evening.
The further north you get, the likelier it will be to see them. The best time to see them would be from 10 p.m.-2 a.m.
For live maps, see NOAA’s aurora forecast model here.
In October of 2024, the northern lights dazzled New Yorkers, lighting up the skies over the city skyline with pink and purple.