The strongest solar storm in over 20 years continues, and a major boost on Wednesday afternoon could elevate this aurora experience to once-in-a-lifetime.

Here is the breakdown — an X-5.1 flare from the sun has slammed into Earth around 1:30 p.m. local time Wednesday, the strongest Earth-directed flare since Halloween 2003, if not longer. This comes on the heels of two separate solar flares that produced aurora as far south as Mexico on Tuesday night. Combine these three flares, and their impact could yield even brighter colors in the sky. Why is it not a slam dunk, though? Space science is a lot more complicated.

In order to even have a chance to see the northern lights, there are three keys that must be in place. Clouds block the aurora, so Tuesday night's cloudy sky prevented most of

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