After being gone for a few years, a storm chasing expert says the Northern Lights are lighting up the sky once again.

Jordan Carruthers is the Founder of Manitoba Storm Chasers. Normally he focuses on chasing tornadoes and nasty weather in the summer months but this winter, as the Northern Lights have returned, he is adding to his work and services.

"In the summer months, I spend my time chasing severe weather across Canada and the USA."

Not only does Carruthers chase storms but he invites the public to join him on Storm Chasing Tours.

"I thought, why not tie it into our Storm Chasing Tours and offer Northern Lights Chasing Tours. There are a lot of people that live in heavily light-polluted places like Winnipeg or Brandon and they don't always get the opportunity to walk out their door and see the Northern Lights."

People have been asking Carruthers where they can see the Aurora Borealis and at what time.

"Northern Lights have been a hot topic lately. We've been moving into a new solar cycle so we're seeing a lot more Northern Lights activity."

The phenomenon is caused by solar flares coming off the sun. When the particles hit the atmosphere, it causes the blue/green ribbons of light, according to Carruthers.

"For the last few years, we've been at a solar minimum, towards the end of solar cycle 24. The new cycle began in December so now for the next few years we should start seeing more of an increase in frequency for them, likely peaking around 2025."

Near the end of the solar cycle the lights will still be visible but less frequently show up in the sky.

"It's been a pretty active month so far. In the winter we tend to get a lot more clear skies at night, which gives us a better opportunity to see them."

Carruthers says it's quite hard to predict when they will show up, but he has most commonly seen them in the sky between 8:30 pm and 2:00 am.

"The Interlake region or up around the lakes is our favourite places to go just because there are not a lot of towns or cities that are polluting the sky with light."

Meanwhile, a local Facebook group is trying to make it easy for you to learn how to catch a glimpse of the Northern Lights in Manitoba.

Created in July of 2020, Manitoba Aurora and Astronomy was founded on the principle of bringing together a community of photographers and visual astronomers alike. One of the creators/admins, Justin Anderson, says when creating the group, they saw a need for something like this.

"We realized there weren't very many Aurora chasers in Manitoba. Lots of people came to us and were asking us where we took these photos, and they were blown away when it was all around Brandon, Portage, and Winnipeg," says Anderson. "People were just blown away and wanted to see it for themselves, and we saw quite often that people were asking us to let them know when the Northern Lights were out. So, a few of us got together, and we created the group in hopes of letting people know when the (lights are) out."

Ever since the group has been trending online and picked up over 6,800 amateur astronomers hoping to catch a glimpse of the lights and other astronomical-related events. Viewing the Northern Lights can often be a challenge because it does not occur every night, and the right conditions need to be prevalent for you to get a show. Anderson gives some chasing advice and points to the app SpaceWeatherLive to track the potential of Northern Lights.

"There are only about five or six things you need to watch for, and if you get outside and you're watching it, and you open up your app as the Aurora starts to dance, and you see one thing took a dip, you can kind of understand what that one portion does," says Anderson. "Understanding the data doesn't take too much, but realizing what each portion of the data brings to the table is what takes patience and practice."