Great Chance to See Incredible Northern Lights in Minnesota this Weekend

If you've never had the opportunity to see the Northern Lights, this weekend could be your chance! We have a really good shot to see the Northern Lights in Minnesota and I'm really tempted to go out and try to hunt them down.

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The Chances of Seeing the Northern Lights in Minnesota

In Minnesota, we generally have a much better chance of seeing the Northern Lights than other states, especially in northern Minnesota.

There's a resort called The Pines of Kabetogama near the Canadian border that says that the "frequency of seeing the Northern Lights in Minnesota varies each year, but on average, the Aurora can be visible about 75-100 times per year."

Obviously, you'll have a much better shot of seeing the Northern Lights that many times if you're way north in Minnesota, but that's still a higher chance than I expected!

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This weekend, though, there's a pretty good chance of most of Minnesota being able to see the Northern Lights.

See the Northern Lights in Minnesota this Weekend

According to Space Weather, there are some big geomagnetic storms coming this weekend. When there are geomagnetic storms, that means the Northern Lights will be active. My understanding is that when the storms are bigger/more severe the more widespread the Northern Lights could be.

Space Weather is saying that this weekend's storms are at the 'severe' level.

According to NOAA's Aurora forecast, we've got a great chance of seeing the Northern Lights Friday night into early Saturday morning.

Check this out, our whole state has a chance to see it! The further north you go, the better chance you have.

Based on that prediction, if you want to chase down the Northern Lights, you'll want to be north of the Twin Cities.

Will the Weather Even Allow Us to See the Northern Lights?

But will the weather cooperate on Friday night? Let's take a look at the forecast for some different spots around Minnesota.

We'll start the furthest south, in Rochester. On Friday night, there's a slight chance for some storms but otherwise it'll be clear skies. So we're in the clear there!

In the Twin Cities, Friday night should be mostly clear. Good news!

In St. Cloud, Friday night skies should also be mostly clear.

And in Duluth, Friday night there's a chance for showers with cloudy skies but it may clear up later in the evening. Fingers crossed!