Minneapolis and Saint Paul Northern Lights Viewing Locations
Are the Northern Lights Visible in Minneapolis and St. Paul?
In May of 2024, a massive solar storm created the best northern lights viewing conditions in the past twenty years. I found myself asking, are the northern lights visible in Minneapolis and Saint Paul? I’ve lived in the Southwest Metro of the Twin Cities for the past eight years and have never seen the northern lights amongst the light pollution created by Minneapolis and Saint Paul.
That all changed on May 10, 2024, when the conditions created such bright northern lights that I could see them from my apartment in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. I was shocked to be able to see the northern lights so clearly as I was literally in the direction of Minneapolis, where it is typically too light to even see most stars. So the answer is, yes, it is possible to see the northern lights in Minneapolis and Saint Paul.
Minneapolis and Saint Paul Northern Lights Viewing Locations - Table of Contents
- Are the Northern Lights Visible in Minneapolis and Saint Paul?
- How to Tell if the Northern Lights will be Visible in the Twin Cities?
- Northern Lights Viewing Locations Near Minneapolis and Saint Paul
- How to Photograph the Northern Lights
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- Related Content
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How to Tell if the Northern Lights will be Visible in Minneapolis and Saint Paul?
There are a variety of factors that will help identify if the northern Lights will be visible in the Minneapolis and Saint Paul Metro Area. The first is cloud cover. If it is cloudy, the northern Lights will be visible in the Twin Cities Area. Next, there must be a high KP ranking. I am not going to get into the technical aspect of the KP in this article, but basically, for the northern lights to be visible in the Twin Cities Metro Area, the KP must be between five and seven. Yes, it is possible for the northern lights to be seen in Southern Minnesota with a KP as low as two or three, but that is extremely rare. On May 10, the night I saw northern lights from my apartment in Eden Prairie, the KP was 8.
Below is the Aurora Forecast for May 10, 2024, for Eden Prairie, Minnesota. The screenshots are from the Aurora App, which is my favorite App for viewing the Northern Lights. You can see that on May 10, 2024, I had a 95 percent chance of viewing the northern lights. This time was the first time I’d experienced odds over 30%.
The last time I saw the Northern Lights was in 2023 in Hinton, Alberta. Despite a spectacular show, there was only a 20 to 25% of seeing the auroras.
What Causes the Northern Lights?
The northern lights, also known as the aurora borealis, are created when charged particles from the Sun interact with the Earth’s atmosphere. The conditions that I experienced on May 10 were caused by a massive solar storm that registered a ranking of G4. The storm was upgraded on Friday, May 10 to a ranking of G5. This ranking meant that serious disruptions of the power grid and GPS satellites could have occurred. During a G5 storm, it might be possible to see the northern lights as far south as Florida.
Northern Lights Viewing Locations Near Minneapolis and Saint Paul
After a full week of teaching, I was exhausted and didn’t want to drive hours away from Minneapolis and Saint Paul to view the northern lights. Instead, I drove west and found a few great locations to view the northern lights near the Twin Cities Metro Area.
Viewing the Northern Lights in Chanhassen at Lake Minnewashta
The first location where I viewed the northern lights was in the suburban town of Chanhassen. As I drove west to get away from the lights of the Twin Cities, I came across a fishing pier on Lake Minnewashta near Roundhouse Park. I took a few photos to check the conditions without spending much time fine-tuning the settings and focusing. After a few minutes, I realized that the light pollution created photos that were not as good as the photos from my apartment, so I decided to head further west.
Still, for those looking for a great place to be able to see the northern lights in the Western Metro Area of the Twin Cities, I would recommend Lake Minnewashta. Below are a few photos. Please excuse the blurriness.
View the Northern Lights in Waconia on the Shores of Lake Waconia
I drove about another fifteen minutes west and found a much better northern lights viewing location. This location was on the shores of Lake Waconia near the Lake Waconia Boat Ramp.
At Lake Waconia, I was able to set up my camera correctly and get my photos in much better focus. Below are some of my photos of the northern lights from the shores of Lake Waconia.
How to Photograph the Northern Lights
Getting good photos of the northern lights is difficult. I have been on multiple northern lights chases, and I still struggle to get in focus photos.
When photographing the Northern Lights, the photographer wants to have an extremely wide-angle lens with the lowest possible aperture (f) setting. The widest lens that I currently have is a Canon RF 24-240 mm. This lens was not ideal, as the lowest aperture setting I could achieve was f4.5. Since I couldn’t get my aperture in the f2 range, I had to up my ISO and use a longer exposure.
In the photos below, I added the file information to the right of each Northern Lights photo. The file information will show what ISO and aperture setting, as well as the length of the exposure, I used for each photograph of the Northern Lights.
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