In Wyoming, residents are familiar with winter storm watches and tornado watches but G3 Magnetic Storm Watches aren’t that commonplace.
It sounds dramatic, but it doesn’t mean that Cowboy State residents should wrap themselves up in tinfoil and look for the nearest cave or anything.
This is a good type of “watch.” This is something people look forward to.
Without getting too much into the science, a G3 Geomagnetic Storm Watch means that because of eruptions on the sun, clouds of charged particles are heading toward the Earth.
Once they hit something called the magnetosphere, the aurora borealis happens — or in layman’s terms, the beautiful dancing lights that appear in the skies, and usually hundreds of miles north of here.
When that happens over Wyoming, it’s rare. But it could happen to some parts of the state on Wednesday and Thursday.
According to the National Weather Service in Riverton, Wyoming, the best chance to see the light show is between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. Wednesday evening, although the show could last well into Thursday morning.
The best locations to see the “northern lights” will be in northern Wyoming, specifically Cody, Lovell and Buffalo, according to a Riverton meteorologist.
But there’s a chance it could be seen anywhere in northern Wyoming. And it could dip further south, as well. It’s hard to predict.
One good resource to check on is SoftServe News. This website will be updated throughout the evening and even includes a real-time Aurora forecast map.
Happy viewing!