Northern lights sighting just outside of Grande Prairie on Nov. 3, 2021 (Photo: Abby Zieverink / EverythingGP staff)

By Shane Clausing

northern lights

Northern lights could shine bright throughout Peace Region over next few days

Mar 30, 2022 | 2:08 PM

The nighttime skies in Grande Prairie and the Peace Region could be lit up by the northern lights over the next few days.

According to the Facebook group Alberta Aurora Chasers, a weather office in the United States is predicting a 72-hour aurora event to take place from March 30 until April 1 in our area.

As of Wednesday afternoon, the Grande Prairie area had a 55 per cent probability of seeing a Kp7/G3 aurora event, which is considered to be very strong.

There is a 40 per cent chance for a Kp6/G2 aurora event on the evening of March 31, which is still considered to be a very strong aurora.

“It’s really going to be almost like a northern hemisphere event that we’re going to experience,” said Aurora Chaser Chris Ratzlaff.

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“The sun has been very active in the last couple of months, especially so in the last week. On Monday, the sun released a few solar flares, that sent a couple of clouds of plasma toward earth. Those take a few days to get here, which we are expecting to arrive later this evening.”

The clouds of plasma then are supposed to interact with the earth’s magnetic field, which gives us, the northern lights.

As a result of the projected forecast, Ratzlaff says there’s a significant chance the Swan City could see this phenomenon.

“Grande Prairie, you’ve got an excellent opportunity this weekend,” he explained. “Most of Alberta is going to be forecast to be clouded over and Grande Prairie is looking like one of the few places that will have clear skies this evening.”

Ratzlaff provided some tips for those who want to chase the lights over the next few days.

“Generally speaking, you want to get outside of an urban area,” he explained. “The best place to usually go is north of the urban area – that way you don’t have the urban lights in your horizon and you don’t have the lights ruining your night vision and the ability to see the aurora.

“If this does what we’re hoping for it to do, it will be quite bright and you might be able to see it near urban space. A comparable event was November 4, we saw something with similar strength and people were watching it from within Calgary.”

MORE: Northern lights expected to be more common in Alberta until 2025: Expert

While there is a very good chance the Swan City could see the northern lights heading into the weekend, Ratzlaff reminds people there is no guarantee we will get the light show we are hoping for.

“They (the weather office) have been wrong before. It has happened that we’ve had a highly anticipated event and nothing showed up. There is millions of miles of space between us and the sun where things can go wrong. The plasma cloud could disappear, dissipate, or just not behave as expected. It is possible that the prediction does fail, its very frustrating when it happens, but it does happen.”

You can check out an aurora tracker by clicking here to see the possibility of the lights shining in Grande Prairie.