Weather News

Friday night lights

Ben Domensino, Friday April 21, 2017 - 15:03 AEST

People in some of Australia's southern states could witness the Aurora Australis tonight.

According to the Bureau of Meteorology, the dazzling Southern Lights may appear in the sky over Tasmania on Friday night and could also be visible in far southern Victoria.

The phenomenon occurs when charged particles emitted by the sun reach Earth and interact with gases in our atmosphere.

The colour of the display is determined by the gases involved in this process. Oxygen causes green and sometimes red (this is rare) and Nitrogen can produce blue or purple lights.

Unfortunately, cloud cover may hinder the view tonight thanks to an upper level low pressure system moving over Victoria. The best chance of clear skies will be in southern Tasmania early in the evening away from anthropogenic light pollution.

- Weatherzone

© Weatherzone 2017

Enter a postcode or town name for local weather, or text to search the site. » advanced search

Weather News

» all stories

Generation gone with the wind

13:20 AEST A weeklong stretch of low wind power was broken on Wednesday evening, as a weak cold front marched across southern Australia. The chart below shows that the National Electricity Market (NEM) has endured a weeklong stretch of low wind generation, with wind power providing around 6% of the NEM’s electricity, down from last year’s average of 13.1% (Mon, April 15 to Wed, April 17).