A rare display of the northern lights may occur Friday night and through the weekend in Nebraska and Iowa after a “very rare” solar storm.
Unusually strong solar flare activity led to the Space Weather Prediction Center issuing a G4 Geomagnetic Storm Watch — the first in nearly 20 years.
The agency says several eruptions of energy from the sun are expected to merge together and hit Earth’s magnetic field.
The solar storm is expected to begin late Friday night into early Saturday.
An aurora that may be visible “as low as Alabama and northern California,” according to the SWPC.
“Watches at this level are very rare,” the SWPC noted.