ByJamie Carter,
Senior Contributor.
The Northern Lights may be visible from northern U.S. states and Canada as soon as it gets dark on Thursday, Oct. 16, 2025, as a coronal mass ejection travels towards Earth to cause a geomagnetic storm.
A coronal mass ejection is a cloud of magnetic fields and charged particles from the sun that stream into space at up to 1,900 miles (3,000 kilometers) per second. It’s often referred to as a CME by space weather forecasters. A CME can take a few days to reach Earth (if it’s Earth-directed).
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) published a geomagnetic storm watch. Its aurora alert is for a G2-rated geomagnetic storm, which could mean the Northern Lights being seen in northern U.S. states from New York to Idaho.
