We were promised they might even be visible has far south as Chicago and in our own backyards.

It didn't happen. Not this far south at least. Oh, the northern lights were seen in Michigan. But you had to go up to Copper Harbor to see them - a nine-hour car ride from Lansing. Some guy named Issac got some cool shots up there:


 

 

 

So, what happened?

USAToday posed that question to Rob Steenburgh, from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Weather Prediction Center in Boulder. He told them, "We only got clipped by the trailing edge of the blast of particles from the sun, so it didn't amount to much of anything." He also told them that solar activity is at a low ebb right now, meaning northern lights are rare anyway right now. That should change when the solar activity is at it's peak in five or six years. Just in time for the next total solar eclipse that will just clip Michigan's southeast corner on April 8, 2024. So things are about to get crazy. Better plan now.

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