‘I was outside yelling at the sky:’ Northern lights dance over Saskatchewan

A clear sky Thursday night created ideal conditions for the northern lights to dance over the Land of Living Skies.

The northern lights on March 23, 2023. (Craig Boehm/Twitter)

University of Regina astronomy professor Samantha Lawler is new to Saskatchewan, but she says she had never seen auroras like she did Thursday night, especially so close to a major city.

“This is by far the best I’ve ever seen,” she said. “I’ve seen a couple of very good displays since living here, but (Thursday’s show) was incredible. I was outside yelling at the sky. It was so cool and absolutely incredible. I was texting my students to get outside.

“I’m fortunate to be a fair ways outside the city, but I could still see quite a bit of light pollution from where I live. But the northern lights were completely obliterating the light pollution. It was really cool and even before it was dark, I could see auroras happening in the eastern sky. And then with Venus and the crescent moon off in the west, it was just gorgeous.”

The northern lights were so powerful that those in major centres like Regina and Saskatoon could see them if they stepped outside and looked up.

Lawler said the lights were so vibrant because of the sun entering its solar maximum phase.

The northern lights at Katepwa on March 23, 2023. (Maureen and Mike Lang/Facebook)

“The sun goes through an 11-year activity cycle where it’s more active and there’s more of these storms that come from the sun that interact with Earth’s magnetic field and create beautiful auroras,” she explained.

“Also, it’s a little because of the orientation of Earth’s magnetic field. When we’re close to equinox, it’s more likely to have really good aurora displays. So that’s what we saw (Thursday) night.”

The sun is constantly producing solar wind and every now and then, there will be an eruption from the sun that causes faster or higher density bursts of wind. If those are directed towards Earth, it helps create the northern lights.

Lawler notes there will be another chance to see the lights Friday night, but she noted that predicting them is hard because of how little information they get from space weather.

“One thing about these beautiful auroras is it’s really hard to forecast,” she said. “When you think about weather forecasts on the Earth, we have weather recording stations all over the place. But for space weather, we have three satellites in the whole solar system. It’s like trying to predict the weather with three thermometers scattered across Canada.”

Lawler recommends people take a look outside Friday night to see if anything is going on.

She says the best place to see the northern lights is by looking north and driving outside the city where light population isn’t a factor.