A strong burst of the sun’s energy has reached Earth’s atmosphere. This has prompted a Severe Geomagnetic Storm Alert to be placed in effect now through tonight.

What appears to be one of the strongest Coronal Mass Ejections (CME) in recent times occurred on May 30. The more intensive energy with this CME hit Earth’s atmosphere around 4:40 this morning, according to NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center(SWPC).

At that point SWPC upgraded a Geomagnetic Storm Watch to a Severe Geomagnetic Storm Alert. SWPC measured a G4 level of energy at 4:40 a.m. G4 energy is in the severe geomagnetic storm category.

Now here’s the updated forecast for the important and trackable metric for geomagnetic energy. The important metric is called the Kp Index.

Kp Index forecast for June 1 to June 3.NOAA

Between 11 p.m. tonight, Sunday and 2 a.m. Monday the Kp Index forecast is 7.67. This means a lot of geomagnetic energy should be exciting the top of the atmosphere this evening and tonight, likely producing northern lights.

Actually SWPC mentions the Kp Index could top out as high as Kp=8.

A Kp Index of 7.67 would allow northern lights to be visible as far south as Alabama. All of Michigan could see northern lights tonight. While the sky is expected to be free of clouds, we currently have a lot of wildfire smoke high in the sky. This smoke looks like it is thinning just north of Michigan. Hopefully the thinner smoke area will be overhead of Michigan after dark.

Since the extreme geomagnetic storm is currently underway we don’t have to stay up late to see northern lights. If northern lights occur tonight it shouldn’t be long after sunset that we could see the aurora.

Get out into a very dark area with a clear view to the north. The tip of Michigan’s Thumb is a great spot to get to for viewing the northern lights. Also anywhere along the Lake Michigan and Lake Huron shorelines is a great spot to see northern lights. Of course if you are in the U.P. you will only have to get a clear northern view.

You can check the satellite imagery here in the early evening. Look at the satellite images and find a close spot with less smoke.