Canada, who will have the best seats for the northern lights?
A geomagnetic storm will hit Earth Thursday night, with a decent viewing of the auroras in parts of Canada
Get ready for another display of the aurora borealis on Thursday and Friday nights.
According to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC), a G3-magnitude (strong) storm will occur.
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The NOAA's SWPC has issued a geomagnetic storm watch (G3) for the night of Thursday, June 4, and Friday, June 5.
The sun emitted a strong solar flare on June 3, peaking at 7:28 a.m. EDT. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured an image of the event, which was classified as X1.0.
As a result, multiple Earth-directed coronal mass ejections (CMEs) have been identified with varying strengths and speeds. Uncertainty exists with exact timing of the events, occurring sometime Thursday evening or Friday morning.
G3-event impacts include visible aroras across canada, including northern reaches of the U.S.
Generally, G3 these conditions occur approximately 15 days out of the year, with events being more frequent during solar-maximum years.
That strength gives a fair amount of Canadians a shot at spotting them. While the timing favours visible auroras all across Canada, active weather and cloud cover may get in the way.
The northern lights can be highly variable and sporadic as the charged particles interact with Earth’s magnetic field and the upper atmosphere.
The disruption to Earth’s magnetic field is caused by coronal mass ejections (CMEs) off the sun's surface, which contain charged particles that move at thousands of kilometres per second toward our planet.
Who will have the best chance of seeing the northern lights?
There will be multiple factors in Canada for a possible aurora show, but if it comes to fruition will depend on where you are in the country.
The best viewing chances will be in Eastern Canada, thanks to the clear, overnight skies expected on Thursday. You can thank a high pressure in place from southern and eastern Ontario, southern Quebec and the Maritimes.
Meanwhile, a less favourable cloud cover setup exists in the West with our digging trough across the West Coast, and isolated storms and cloudy periods on the Prairies. So expect hit-or-miss viewing opportunities.
The latest G3 (strong) geomagnetic storm watch issued by NOAA, prior to the June 3, 2026 alert, occurred on March 20-21, 2026.
No major disruptions to satellite and communication systems or power grids are expected, but it could lead to some issues, which are mitigable, including more frequent and longer periods of degradation of global positioning system (GPS) degradation.
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With files from Nathan Howes, a digital journalist at The Weather Network, and Rachel Modestino, a meteorologist at The Weather Network.