Another chance for aurora to visit North Georgia is happening Monday night!
The CME has arrived early and is stronger than initially forecast. On Jan. 19, a very rare, strong proton storm pelted the atmosphere ahead of it. Current data would suggest aurora will be possible as soon as the sun goes down across North Georgia. Find a good spot, look north and have some patience!
Strong Flare
The sun released a strong, X1.9 flare from sunspot group 4341 on Sunday afternoon. This flare resulted in a very large release of charged particles from the sun, also known as a CME. This CME is headed for Earth, and could result in some dim aurora over North Georgia overnight tonight.
The official forecast from the Space Weather Prediction Center calls for a G4 storm. Usually, with a G4 storm dim aurora can be visible on the northern horizon across North Georgia. The last time this happened was in November 2025 when aurora were seen widespread across the region and as far south as the Florida line.
What to expect
G4 storms often produce dim, red, naked eye visible aurora in dark skies across North Georgia. These are most visible well away from city lights and looking to the north. However, the view can really be enhanced with a simple cell phone. If you are having trouble making them out, point your cell phone to the north and its night mode will often take a great photo. The image below is from the Clarkesville City limits during the strong storm of October 2024, and gives an idea of what is possible.
When to look
If you thought weather forecasting was hard, Spaceweather forecasting is even harder. The current forecast calls for the CME to arrive between midnight and sunrise on Monday night. However, this forecast has about a 12 hour margin of error. Since the CME is located directly between us and the sun, it is very difficult to determine how much material is headed our way or how fast it is traveling. The best thing you can do is monitor the current data on a site like www.spaceweather.com or www.spaceweatherlive.com. If you don’t feel like doing that, we’ll be monitoring the arrival here at Now Habersham and keep you alerted via our Facebook page and here on this post.
Keep your fingers crossed that we see aurora once again over Georgia!
