Northern Lights to Shine Over Northeastern US Tonight David Cartier Sr. / Handout / NASA Swirls of green and red appear in an aurora over Whitehorse, Yukon on the night of Sept. Charged particles streaming in from the sun create the natural sky show. If you've been shivering through frigid temperatures and biting-cold wind in recent days, the skies might just have a treat for you tonight. A strong aurora, known commonly as the Northern Lights, should be visible Wednesday evening and into Thursday morning in the northern plains, the Great Lakes region, and the northeast United States. The light show will be the first northern lights spectacle of 2014, AccuWeather reports. The show should be visible in clear skies, though cloud cover could obscure it for some. Meteorologists expect the lights Wednesday evening because a strong coronal mass ejection took place facing the earth on Tuesday. AccuWeather