The Northern Lights are expected to put on another great show Wednesday Night. (Ryan Lambert/battlefordsNOW staff)

By Ryan Lambert

Solar Storm

Powerful geomagnetic storm sparks northern lights

Nov 12, 2025 | 2:35 PM

Mother Nature is being generous to Saskatchewan this week, with temperatures well above normal for this time of year and spectacular shows of the Northern Lights.

It’s those light shows, however, that are causing a bit of a concern.

The aurora borealis are the result of an ongoing solar storm that has brought colourful auroras to unexpected places, including Europe and as far south as Kansas and Texas. Over the past few days, the sun has burped out several bursts of energy called coronal mass ejections. Two have reached Earth, but at least one more is still on the way.

Space Weather Canada issued a major geomatic storm watch for Wednesday. The watch is issued when conditions are favourable for the development of hazardous geomagnetic, and potentially ionospheric, activity that poses a threat to critical infrastructure and technology at or near the earth.

(Amanda Mae Pratt/Facebook, Saskatchewan Aurora Hunters)

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According to the government website, “Geomagnetic storms can affect power systems, pipelines, submarine cables, magnetic surveys, compass use, and directional drilling. These storms can be accompanied by ionospheric disturbances that could affect high frequency radio systems and the Global Navigation Satellite System signals.”

During an interview in May, assistant professor of science at York University Jesse Rogerson, who has a PhD in Astrophysics, said there really isn’t any way for modern technology to avoid this from happening.

“To some degree we are a little bit helpless. You put a satellite in space to help you with communications and if that satellite gets shorted out, you can put redundant systems on it,” said Rogerson. “You can have multiple computer systems and different ways of routing the power through the satellite, but if all of that gets shorted, then the satellite becomes dead and like, there’s not much you can do about that.”

According to the Aurora Forecast, the best time to see the Northern Lights is within two hours of midnight (10 p.m. – 2 a.m.), although they could start around 7 p.m. Wednesday.

(Michelle Lalonde/Facebook, Saskatchewan Aurora Hunters)

It turns out, the current weather forecast will provide ideal conditions to watch the northern lights. David Phillips, senior climatologist with Environment Canada, said much of the province is seeing temperatures that are eight to 14 degrees warmer than normal for this time of year. Phillips said the warm weather is due to storms moving across the north, which are drawing up warm southern air.

“You’re getting this warm air from the United States, so we don’t have a lot of snow on the ground, which is not cooling the air,” the climatologist explained.

“This is really kind of like a mid-November bonus – temperatures that are just unusually mild.”

Phillips said there might be a bit of snow and cooler weather ahead next week, but it shouldn’t be a deep freeze quite yet.

“You’re not going to pay for it. People always worry (when) you get a week like this. ‘Oh, nature is going to make up for it,’” he said.

“It’s going to turn a little cool for the next couple of weeks, but I don’t think any polar vortex kind of concerns.”

The forecast for Friday calls for a high of 13 °C. in Prince Albert, 11°C. in Melfort, 7 °C. in the Battlefords and Meadow Lake, while La Ronge will see highs around 5 or 6 °C.

– With files from CKOM

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Ryan.Lambert@pattisonmedia.com