New Glarus residents and skywatchers across southern Wisconsin could be in for a rare celestial treat tonight and tomorrow as a powerful solar storm increases the chances of seeing the Northern Lights far south of their usual range.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center has issued a G4, or severe, geomagnetic storm watch for Jan. 20, following a strong X1.9-class solar flare that erupted from the sun on Jan. 18. That flare sent a massive, Earth-directed coronal mass ejection, a cloud of charged solar particles, toward the planet.