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(Accuweather)

Pennsylvanians have a good chance of seeing the northern lights this evening, AccuWeather says, thanks to a solar flare Thursday. Best time for viewing will be around 8 p.m. Saturday, give or take seven hours.

Viewing conditions will be best in the mid-Atlantic, specifically for parts of Pennsylvania and the Delmarva, says Accuweather. Most of the country will have poor to fair views as a result of cloud cover, with areas further south not experiencing the aurora at all. Skies around Harrisburg may be clouding up around 8 p.m., so that could impact viewing the northern lights in central Pennsylvania.

The flare is expected to cause vibrant northern lights from the Arctic as far south as New York, the Dakotas, Washington and Michigan, with a smaller possibility of it going into Pennsylvania and Iowa, even Kansas. If the radiation hits much after dark settles on the East Coast the lights may be missed and will instead only be visible for the West, says AccuWeather.

The radiation from the flare may also radio wave disturbances to electronics such as cell phones, GPS and radios, causing services to occasionally cut in and out, AccuWeather warns.

Solar flares create auroras when radiation from the sun reaches Earth and interacts with charged protons in the atmosphere. The effects are greater at the magnetic poles and weaken as they move south from the Arctic or north of the Antarctic.