Aurora chasers have another reason to be thankful Thursday: A solar storm is forecast to reach Earth and produce colorful northern lights in the Northern Hemisphere.
The dazzling phenomenon, also known as the aurora borealis, should be visible on Thanksgiving and Black Friday in parts of the northern United States, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The celestial display of greenish and reddish hues would come courtesy of a coronal mass ejection hurtling toward Earth, which prompted NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center to issue a geomagnetic storm watch for Thursday and Friday.
The solar storm could pose a minimal threat to things like satellites, GPS signals and power grids, but it may also provide some additional Thanksgiving entertainment when football and the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade have long ended. Because of the way the solar particles interact with Earth's magnetosphere, the powerful eruption should make the vibrant northern lights visible to a wider swath of the Northern Hemisphere than usual.
Here's what to know about the northern lights and how to see them on Thanksgiving night in the United States.
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