The Northern Lights seen near Hallbankgate in North Cumbria, on Feb. 27, 2014. (Stuart Walker/Caters News Agency)

People in Illinois, Oregon and other northern states may catch a glimpse of colorful aurora Wednesday as a brews in Earth's magnetosphere. The Space Weather Prediction Center has issued a , expecting a G3 storm to arrive in conjunction with a coronal mass ejection impact.

A coronal mass ejection impact is likely on Dec. 30, which is expected to cause geomagnetic storming with residual effects lasting into Dec. 31. (Space Weather Prediction Center/NOAA)

The prediction center said the G3 geomagnetic storming could effect power systems, spacecraft operations and high-frequency radio transmissions. The storm means that the northern lights may be visible as far south as 50 degrees geomagnetic latitude.

Geomagnetic storms happen when solar wind produces "major changes in the currents, plasmas and fields in Earth's magnetosphere," . The center has been tracking a coronal mass ejection that's likely to impact earth and has been associated with a small radio blackout on December 28.

These storms may bring beautiful colors into the night sky, but their , from GPS interference to the creation of harmful currents in power grids.

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NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this close-up image of an outburst on the sun's surface, between Nov. 3-5, 2015. Though the sun’s extreme ultraviolet light is invisible to our eyes, the wavelength is colorized here in red. (NASA/SDO)