Delaware
Northern lights could be visible in Delaware tonight as ‘severe’ solar storm predicted
Northern lights dance across the night sky
Clear skies allowed an aurora borealis to shimmer green hues across the northern sky in numerous locations overnight April 23 into April 24.
Accuweather
Have you always wanted to see the northern lights but never been able to travel far enough north to catch a glimpse?
There’s a chance they could be visible from Delaware and nearby states Friday night.
Over the last several days, space weather forecasters have been closely monitoring the sun following a series of solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs). These are explosions of plasma and magnetic fields, which cause geomagnetic storms.
On Earth, the storms can cause disruptions in communications, the electric power grid, navigation and radio. In space, they can affect satellites.
But the storms can also trigger “spectacular displays” of the northern lights, or aurora borealis, according to NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center. This means the aurora could be seen as far south as Alabama and northern California.
This would also include Delaware.
The last time space weather forecasters issued a severe (G4) geomagnetic storm watch − the second most powerful solar storm classification − was January 2005, though a G4 storm did occur in March of this year.
A G5 storm is the most severe and classified as “extreme.” The last one occurred in October 2003 and caused power outages in Sweden. It also and damaged power transformers in South Africa, according to the Space Weather Prediction Center.
When could I see the northern lights?
Timing is not exact, but the time to view the aurora is usually within several hours of midnight, or between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. local time. There can be aurora in the evening and morning, but it is not usually as active, according to NOAA.
During a Friday morning news conference, officials with the space weather prediction center said they will not know the intensity of the storm until the coronal mass ejections reach about a million miles from Earth. They travel at 800 kilometers (497 miles) per second, meaning scientists will have 20 to 45 minutes to determine the intensity before any potential effects are felt or seen.
“Because we’re talking about something (that originates) 93 million miles away, it is extremely difficult to forecast with a very good degree of accuracy,” said Shawn Dahl, a service coordinator with the space weather prediction center.
But, he and others added, if the solar storm does reach the G4 level, sky gazers should look up in the “late evening to post-midnight hours.”
For best viewing, the National Weather Service recommends looking to the north and trying to get away from city lights. The darker the sky, the better for viewing, weather officials say.
While Friday night appears to be the best chance for viewing, the aurora may also be visible Saturday night into Sunday.
Will Friday’s rain affect my potential viewing?
One key requirement to seeing the aurora is clear skies − meaning Friday’s wet weather may hinder potential viewing.
Rain is expected to continue on and off throughout much of the day in Delaware, though radar shows it tapering off around 9 p.m.
WEEKEND WEATHER: Grab your raincoats, Delaware. It’s going to be a dreary weekend with rain, cloudy skies
Still, cloud cover is predicted at: 100% at 10 p.m., 98% at 11 p.m., 98% at midnight, 97% at 1 a.m. and 93% at 2 a.m., according to the National Weather Service.
While Delaware will likely have an overnight reprieve from rain, a frontal system developing over the Midwest will cause precipitation to return to the Mid-Atlantic on Saturday with another round of rain and thunderstorms.
The storm will be weaker than Friday’s, however, and severe thunderstorms are not expected, NWS said.
What are the northern lights?
The aurora borealis is a glow produced by electrons that float down to the Earth’s magnetic field from space. The electrons crash with atoms and molecules of the atmosphere in a ring on the Earth’s magnetic pole, according to NOAA.
All that commotion produces multicolor bulbs of light, which can be seen in the Northern and Southern hemispheres, respectively.
Got a story tip or idea? Send to Isabel Hughes at ihughes@delawareonline.com. For all things breaking news, follow her on X at @izzihughes_
Humpback whale beaches and dies at Delaware Seashore State Park
The Marine Education, Research and Rehabilitation Institute will perform a necropsy.
A dead humpback whale washed up near Bethany Beach on Jan. 8, according to the nonprofit Marine Education Research and Rehabilitation Institute.
The juvenile male was first seen Jan. 6, floating at sea about 2 miles off the Indian River Inlet, a MERR Facebook post said. The bloated 30-foot whale ultimately beached near a private community in the early afternoon of Jan. 8, the post said.
MERR is attempting to coordinate with the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control to get equipment to move the whale out of the water and onto the beach to perform a necropsy, the post said. Right now, there isn’t enough information to determine a cause of death.
Delaware saw at least three dead whales last year, in the Indian River Bay, at Delaware Seashore State Park and at Pigeon Point. The first two were humpbacks, while the Pigeon Point whale was a fin whale.
A necropsy on the Delaware Seashore whale found blunt force trauma across its back, indicating it may have been struck by a ship, MERR Director Suzanne Thurman said.
Recently, on Jan. 4, a dead fin whale was found on the bow of a ship at the Gloucester Marine Terminal in New Jersey, which is located in the Port of Philadelphia on the Delaware River.
Shannon Marvel McNaught reports on southern Delaware and beyond. Reach her at smcnaught@gannett.com or on Facebook.
A Pennsylvania man is accused of stealing more than 100 skeletons from a cemetery in Delaware County.
Jonathan Gerlach, 34, of Ephrata, Pennsylvania, is charged with abuse of corpse, criminal mischief, burglary and other related offenses, Delaware County District Attorney Tanner Rouse revealed on Thursday, Jan. 8.
Léelo en español aquí
Between November 2025 and Jan. 6, 2026, 26 mausoleums and underground burial sites had been burglarized or desecrated at Mount Moriah Cemetery, which stretches from Yeadon Borough, Pennsylvania, to Philadelphia, investigators said.
As police investigated the thefts, they caught Gerlach desecrating a monument at the cemetery on Tuesday, Jan. 6, according to officials. Gerlach was taken into custody and investigators executed a search warrant at his home in Ephrata.
During the search, investigators recovered 100 human skeletons from Gerlach’s home as well as eight more human remains inside a storage locker, according to Rouse.
“Detectives walked into a horror movie come to life the other night guys,” Rouse said. “This is an unbelievable scene that no one involved – from myself to the detectives to the medical examiners that are now trying to piece together what they are looking at, quite literally – none of them have ever seen anything like this before.”
Rouse said some of the stolen skeletons are hundreds of years old.
“We are trying to figure out exactly what we are looking at,” Rouse said. “We quite simply at this juncture are not able to date and identify all of them.”
Rouse also said some of the skeletons are of infants and children.
“It is truly, in the most literal sense of the word, horrific,” Rouse said. “I grieve for those who are upset by this who are going through it who are trying to figure out if it is in fact their loved one or their child because we found remains that we believe to be months old infants among those that he had collected. Our hearts go out to every family that is impacted by this.”
Sources also told NBC10 the thefts are related to a similar case in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. Investigators said they are looking at Gerlach’s online community — including his social media groups and Facebook page — to determine if people were buying, selling, or trading the remains.
Gerlach is currently in custody at the Delaware County Prison after failing to post $1 million bail. Online court records don’t list an attorney who could speak on his behalf.
VENTNOR, N.J. (WPVI) — A Delaware woman is behind bars in connection with a hit-and-run crash in November at the Jersey shore.
(The video in the player above is from previous coverage.)
The incident happened around 6:16 p.m. on Nov. 20 in Ventnor, New Jersey.
READ MORE | Video shows Jersey shore hit-and-run crash that left 92-year-old injured
Police said the 92-year-old victim was struck at Ventnor and Newport avenues. He sustained serious injuries and was transported to an area hospital.
Investigators said the driver, Leslie Myers, 51, of Weldin Park, Delaware, fled the scene after the crash.
She was arrested Wednesday on charges of assault by auto, leaving the scene of an accident and other related offenses.
Myers is being held in the Allegheny County Jail in Pennsylvania, awaiting extradition to New Jersey.
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