CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – It’s going to be too cloudy tonight to see it, but over the cloud cover the Charlottesville area has a chance to see some aurora borealis Monday night into Tuesday morning. Local storm chaser and space weather guru Peter Forister was on his way to upstate New York Monday morning when he spoke with CvilleRightNow about what he says is a forecast G-3 storm. He says the best viewing will be from about 10pm-to-6am and the full aurora could be as far south as Pennsylvania, across through Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and northern Nebraska and northern Colorado. Weather permitting, what you’d see in our area is dim red colors in the sky with little flashes of brighter colors. You’ll notice throughout Monday a sort of haze up high, and that’s from smoke from Canadian wildfires that will also make any color, if you see it, tonight predominantly red.

If we miss it tonight, Forister says solar activity is pretty prevalent right now, and it’s possible we may have other chances to see some aurora the next couple of nights or so. He says any forecast of an aurora beyond tonight is speculative, so it’s possible it doesn’t happen. But if it does happen the next couple of nights, there’s less cloud cover and a better chance of seeing something.