If you have noticed the Northern Lights have been less than impressive this winter in southern Manitoba, you are not alone. And a spokesperson for the Planetarium at the Manitoba Museum in Winnipeg has confirmed that when it comes to this spectacle in the sky, we are in a bit of a drought.

Scott Young says Northern Lights, or Aurora Borealis as they are technically called, are caused by the sun. Young says energy from the sun is radiating in all directions. That radiation interacts with our atmosphere and the earth's magnetic field, funneling to either the north or south pole. When that energy connects, it gets so energetic that it causes the air to glow in the dark.

"When there is lots of activity on the sun, we see lots of activity in the Northern Lights," explains Young. "And when the sun is a little bit quieter, there is not as much activity."

Contrary to what some people believe, Northern Lights are in no way impacted by air temperature. For example, when people suggest there are more often Northern Lights on really cold days in winter, that isn't really the case. However, Young says Northern Lights might more often be visible on really cold nights because it is on those nights that there is generally no cloud cover to block the view.

Meanwhile, Young says the sun, which drives the Northern Lights, has a cycle that ebbs and flows over 11 years. Each cycle has a peak, but Young says not each cycle is the same and so one cycle might have a stronger peak than the next. And according to Young, he's not entirely sure where we are in the current cycle.

"We just had sort of a very low broad peak this time, so we're kind of coming down from a peak," he says. "But it was a pretty low peak, so there really hasn't been a lot of regular aurora activity."

Yet, Young says it is this unpredictability that adds to the mystique of the Northern Lights. Further to that, he says trying to forecast Northern Lights is tougher than trying to forecast weather.

Young says there has certainly been a slowdown in Northern Lights activity in our southern Manitoba sky the last couple of decades. He recalls in the late 1980's and early 1990's while studying Astronomy. Young says they had a peak year where every single night the sky would be covered by Aurora Borealis. In fact, he says the lights were drowning out the stars and they couldn't do their astronomy work.

"We got to the point where we were kind of fed up with these Northern Lights because they were killing the rest of the sky," he says. "We haven't seen that kind of activity in a very, very long time and I hope it will return but we will have to see what happens in the coming years."

Young says they are called Northern Lights because they are generally visible around the North Pole, whereas people living in places like Australia and Antarctica will see Southern Lights or Aurora Australis from the South Pole.