New Year’s Eve: Witness the Northern Lights in Montana!

It's New Year's Eve, and Mother Nature will put on a dazzling show tonight in Montana with her northern lights!

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is forecasting a heightened visibility of the aurora borealis for New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. The lights will be most prominent in Canada, but the forecast dips into several states, including Washington, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine, as well as parts of Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Iowa and New York.

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You can see the full forecast of the aurora borealis 'view line' HERE.

The Sun is currently at the end of an 11-year cycle where solar flares are at their peak. According to NASA, the solar cycle is a transition between low and high magnetic activity. This causes our closest star to flip its magnetic poles.

For this particular night of lights, the Sun released a total of 3 Solar flares on December 29th. This heightened activity will continue throughout the year.

You can watch the captured images from NOAA of the flares being released HERE.

"This increase in activity provides an exciting opportunity to learn about our closest star — but also causes real effects at Earth and throughout our solar system," said Jamie Favors, director, Space Weather Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington

With the NOAA's prediction, this is certainly an exciting opportunity to witness a beautiful close to 2024. So... take a drive away from the city lights, and you may have a good chance to see nature's stunning light show in Big Sky Country!

Credit: NASA , NOAA, NASA , CBS News