Aurora alert! Powerful geomagnetic storm could spark northern lights as far south as Illinois on March 19

Aurora chasers, keep your eyes on the skies later this week as an incoming coronal mass ejection could spark favorable conditions for widespread northern lights displays.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) has issued a G2 geomagnetic storm warning for March 19 due to possible impact from a coronal mass ejection (CME). Geomagnetic storms are classified using a G-scale, which ranks their intensity from G1 (minor) to G5 (extreme).

This is great news for aurora chasers as the predicted G2-level storm could bring northern lights as far south as New York and Idaho, but NOAA's SWPC says there is a chance that G3 levels could be reached, which could lead to aurora sightings deep into mid-latitudes such as Illinois and Oregon.