See the Northern Lights in Leelanau!

Starry Aurora Sky by Owen Weber Photography

Winter is a great time to see the Northern Lights, and while the next week looks pretty calm, I thought I’d share a couple tips to help you see the Aurora Borealis.

1. Get an Aurora app for your phone. Seriously – apps that give you a live “Kp” of the level of geomagnetic disturbance in a range of 0 (calm) to 9 with 5 or more indicating a geomagnetic storm are the best innovation out there. I like MyAurora Pro, but a search for Northern Lights will find you a bunch!

2. Sign up for Space Weather Alerts from the NOAA NWS Space Weather Prediction Center. You can set the level (4 or 5 is our bottom threshold for seeing them in Leelanau).

3. Unleash your inner Night Owl. Northern lights typically ebb & flow, so if there’s a high probability and you have a vantage where you can quickly see activity, check on it every so often.

4. Know where to go! When you do get alerted, you have a much better chance of seeing the lights if you can see the northern horizon. Leelanau’s western & northern shore is great, and if you can get on a high enough hill, that’s a good second choice.

Owen took this back in October of 2017 at Glen Haven. Prints are available at OwenWeberPhotography.com