St. Patrick’s Night Skies Might Get Green Tint from Northern Lights [Infographic/Photos]

NASA is reporting that a coronal mass ejection -- it sounds messy, but it's not -- will give Michigan residents a pretty good shot at seeing the Aurora Borealis light up the northern skies tonight, capping St. Patrick's Day with a green light show this evening.

The further north you go, the better your chance of seeing it, but greater Grand Rapids and West Michigan residents may get a view if the skies stay clear, The Grand Rapids Press/MLive Media Group reports.

The Geophysical Institute in Alaska is calling the strength of the Northern Lights to be at a level four for tonight, dropping to a level three on Wednesday. A level four rating means the probability of seeing the lights locally increases, as indicated by the solid lower line on the map below.

While the chances are slight, if you live in a rural area to the north of the metro Grand Rapids area, you may be able to see some lights late Tuesday into early Wednesday morning. Look low on the horizon for a pulsating green light.

All this is the result of the first notable solar flare of 2015, an M-class flare, that may have caused some communications outages Monday evening.