Northern Lights May 19 2024. Lewis brown/story picture agency/shutterstock sign up for cnn’s. The northern lights are created when energized particles from the sun slam into earth's upper atmosphere at speeds of up to 45 million mph (72 million kph), but our planet's magnetic field.

Forecasts show increased potential for northern lights in 2024. There’s a chance the northern lights could return to canada and parts of the northern u.s.