Look Up! Northern Lights May Be Visible From Michigan Tonight

DETROIT (CBS Detroit) - Ever had a chance to see the northern lights? Monday night could be the night.

Reporting for MLive, Meteorologist Mark Torregrossa says the potential is there for northern lights straight overhead in Michigan, and northern lights to be visible as abnormally far south as Oklahoma City and Raleigh, North Carolina — and right here in metro Detroit.

Why tonight of all nights?

CBS Chief Meteorologist Jim Madaus says a cold night is usually the best time to see the show, but that's not the case here.

He explained space weather scientists with NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, are predicting a G3 solar storm — a strong magnetic storm which, generally speaking, creates the right conditions. 

If the skies are clear, Madaus said, just head outside and look to the north. The farther north you are and the darker the location the better; so out in the country away from city lights would be your best bet.

Madaus says it's definitely worth a look.

"It's like band of green color, glowing in the sky," he said. "It doesn't happen often but when it does happen, it's a real treat. If you've ever seen it ... it's mid-boggling."

According to the Northern Lights Center, the northern lights — also known as aurora borealis —  are the result of collisions between gaseous, electrically charged  particles in the Earth's atmosphere with charged particles released from the sun's atmosphere. Variations in color are due to the type of gas particles that are colliding.