Minnesotans could get a second chance to see the northern lights Wednesday night
A view of the northern lights above Bde Maka Ska, Minn., on Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025.
Courtesy of Susan Throndrud
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Audio transcript
NINA MOINI: Well, I don't about you all, but our newsroom, our office is abuzz with chatter and photos of those beautiful northern lights we saw last night. I'm sure a lot of people saw them. I felt like people had really good photos, surprisingly really good photos. Here with the latest on that, and we could see even more tonight, is meteorologist Paul Huttner. Paul, I know you were looking last night.
PAUL HUTTNER: Oh, I couldn't sleep last night after that show. That was incredible. Simply a once in a lifetime aurora event for Minnesota, Nina.
NINA MOINI: Wow. You know, I have to say, I didn't even go outside because I'm so used to not seeing them and being like, oh, I'm not going to see them anyway. And like I said, it seemed once in a lifetime. It was really beautiful. What causes all those different colors?
PAUL HUTTNER: You know, it's a really phenomenal process that happens in the atmosphere, and we saw just about all the colors in Minnesota, the reds, the green, the blue, the purple. The energy from the sun interacts with Earth's magnetosphere, and it excites oxygen and nitrogen molecules in the atmosphere. So when it's high up, it's red. When it's under 150 miles above us, it's green. And then blue and purple as you get down lower.
But this was one of the strongest geomagnetic storms we've had on record, at or near the top of the scale. The scale goes to G5, and we got very close last night. We had a strong one last year in May, and before that it's 1989. So this is one of the strongest storms on record. And we had this cool phenomenon called the corona effect, which happened right over Minnesota. The auroral oval is where the center of this aurora is, and it usually sits way up over the North Pole. So think Alaska, the Arctic Circle.
Well, it expanded down over Minnesota last night and we saw photos of this showing it right overhead, like the eye of a hurricane, with red and green wrapping around it. We look at those on Doppler radar, they're tornado signatures. It looked like that up in the sky. And the result was really the most vivid northern lights of a lifetime for many in Minnesota, and it was also visible as far south as Florida and Texas and Arizona last night.
NINA MOINI: That is so cool, Paul. OK, so if you're like me and you missed it-- I'm feeling really bad about that now. [CHUCKLES] How likely is it we'll see more tonight?
PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, it's possible. There is another geomagnetic storm happening right now. I just checked NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center, which would be a pretty cool place to work as a meteorologist. And there is a wave happening right now, but of course, it's daytime here. It looks like it could peak around G4, G5 tonight, possibly, but it may happen before sunset here in North America.
So there's a chance tonight. I would say go out again after sunset, after dark into this evening and see if you can see them. The timing could be a question. And there will be some clouds in southern Minnesota, clearer up north. So if you didn't get it last night, because northern Minnesota had some clouds, maybe you'll see it tonight. But again, last night, Nina, can't stress it enough, I've never seen northern lights like that in my entire life. It was magical.
NINA MOINI: That's so cool. All right, let's talk about temperatures and the weather forecast. What are you expecting for the rest of the week and weekend?
PAUL HUTTNER: You know, it's November Nice, I'm calling it, because it's pretty mild for November. It's not like summer, but for this time of year it's mild. Our normal high is down into the low 40s now, and we're going to be in the 50s for the next few days, 52 today. It's breezy out there today but those winds will die tomorrow. Gorgeous day, mostly sunny and 53 in the Twin Cities, 62 on Friday. And then maybe we hit 60 in southern Minnesota Saturday before the cold front comes through, and we'll drop into the 30s and 40s across Minnesota by Sunday. So pretty great-looking week right now. I don't see any big storms in sight just yet.
NINA MOINI: OK. How's the moisture looking for farmers? I know we're headed into December and probably more freezing temperatures pretty soon here.
PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, this is a critical time of the year because we like to get what we call soil recharge before it freezes up in December, and it's dry across most of Minnesota. There is drought that's reached into the severe category, up around Duluth, Cloquet, and Hinckley, so we need some big storms coming in. I don't see them yet. Maybe toward the end of next week, we'll get something that could produce some more widespread rain, Nina, and help recharge the soils.
NINA MOINI: All right. Thanks so much for the update, Paul.
PAUL HUTTNER: My pleasure. Thanks, Nina.
NINA MOINI: That's MPR News chief meteorologist Paul Huttner.
PAUL HUTTNER: Oh, I couldn't sleep last night after that show. That was incredible. Simply a once in a lifetime aurora event for Minnesota, Nina.
NINA MOINI: Wow. You know, I have to say, I didn't even go outside because I'm so used to not seeing them and being like, oh, I'm not going to see them anyway. And like I said, it seemed once in a lifetime. It was really beautiful. What causes all those different colors?
PAUL HUTTNER: You know, it's a really phenomenal process that happens in the atmosphere, and we saw just about all the colors in Minnesota, the reds, the green, the blue, the purple. The energy from the sun interacts with Earth's magnetosphere, and it excites oxygen and nitrogen molecules in the atmosphere. So when it's high up, it's red. When it's under 150 miles above us, it's green. And then blue and purple as you get down lower.
But this was one of the strongest geomagnetic storms we've had on record, at or near the top of the scale. The scale goes to G5, and we got very close last night. We had a strong one last year in May, and before that it's 1989. So this is one of the strongest storms on record. And we had this cool phenomenon called the corona effect, which happened right over Minnesota. The auroral oval is where the center of this aurora is, and it usually sits way up over the North Pole. So think Alaska, the Arctic Circle.
Well, it expanded down over Minnesota last night and we saw photos of this showing it right overhead, like the eye of a hurricane, with red and green wrapping around it. We look at those on Doppler radar, they're tornado signatures. It looked like that up in the sky. And the result was really the most vivid northern lights of a lifetime for many in Minnesota, and it was also visible as far south as Florida and Texas and Arizona last night.
NINA MOINI: That is so cool, Paul. OK, so if you're like me and you missed it-- I'm feeling really bad about that now. [CHUCKLES] How likely is it we'll see more tonight?
PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, it's possible. There is another geomagnetic storm happening right now. I just checked NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center, which would be a pretty cool place to work as a meteorologist. And there is a wave happening right now, but of course, it's daytime here. It looks like it could peak around G4, G5 tonight, possibly, but it may happen before sunset here in North America.
So there's a chance tonight. I would say go out again after sunset, after dark into this evening and see if you can see them. The timing could be a question. And there will be some clouds in southern Minnesota, clearer up north. So if you didn't get it last night, because northern Minnesota had some clouds, maybe you'll see it tonight. But again, last night, Nina, can't stress it enough, I've never seen northern lights like that in my entire life. It was magical.
NINA MOINI: That's so cool. All right, let's talk about temperatures and the weather forecast. What are you expecting for the rest of the week and weekend?
PAUL HUTTNER: You know, it's November Nice, I'm calling it, because it's pretty mild for November. It's not like summer, but for this time of year it's mild. Our normal high is down into the low 40s now, and we're going to be in the 50s for the next few days, 52 today. It's breezy out there today but those winds will die tomorrow. Gorgeous day, mostly sunny and 53 in the Twin Cities, 62 on Friday. And then maybe we hit 60 in southern Minnesota Saturday before the cold front comes through, and we'll drop into the 30s and 40s across Minnesota by Sunday. So pretty great-looking week right now. I don't see any big storms in sight just yet.
NINA MOINI: OK. How's the moisture looking for farmers? I know we're headed into December and probably more freezing temperatures pretty soon here.
PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, this is a critical time of the year because we like to get what we call soil recharge before it freezes up in December, and it's dry across most of Minnesota. There is drought that's reached into the severe category, up around Duluth, Cloquet, and Hinckley, so we need some big storms coming in. I don't see them yet. Maybe toward the end of next week, we'll get something that could produce some more widespread rain, Nina, and help recharge the soils.
NINA MOINI: All right. Thanks so much for the update, Paul.
PAUL HUTTNER: My pleasure. Thanks, Nina.
NINA MOINI: That's MPR News chief meteorologist Paul Huttner.
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