The Northern Lights, or Aurora Borealis, may become visible over large areas of the United States on Monday night as a severe geomagnetic storm impacts Earth’s atmosphere.

At 1809 UTC on January 18, 2026, a strong solar flare peaked sending a CME (Coronal Mass Ejection) towards Earth. This is a massive burst of solar material and magnetic field from the sun’s outer atmosphere causing a geomagnetic storm that is forecast to interact with the Earth’s atmosphere on Monday tonight into early Tuesday morning in the United States’s time zones.

Earlier on Monday, at 1938 UTC or 1:38pm CST, the geomagnetic storm reached G4 (severe) levels. Measurements from NOAA’s GOES-19 satellite taken earlier today showed an ongoing solar radiation storm had reached Severe (S4) and it was still increasing. At 1854 UTC on Monday, spaceweather.gov reported that a severe (S4) radiation storm was in progress. This is a rare event, and these values exceed the intensity observed in October 2003.

Image: Aurora forecast for Monday night. Source: NOAA

Strong to severe geomagnetic levels (G4) are still forecast for Monday night. The solar radiation level is also forecast to increase again to S4. If this occurs, the northern lights may be viewable across much of the central U.S., possibly as far south as northern California and TN. Cloud cover will also be conducive for viewing of the northern lights across much of these states overnight Monday into Tuesday.