Solar storm leads to aurora alert for tonight – if you can see it

A big sunspot is acting up, and that’s led to solar-storm activity, with the possibility of aurora sightings if the sky clears at all. First word came from our Skies Over West Seattle correspondent Alice Enevoldsen, and we also received tips from Mike and Mat. The best explanation is at spaceweather.com; you can also watch the Space Weather Prediction Center. According to a chart shared by Alice, the peak activity should be between about 10 pm our time tonight at 4 am tomorrow. She says it’s “worth driving out from under the clouds for.” (Unfortunately we’re not seeing anyplace cloud-free, even on the longer-range weather radar. But there’s always hope.)

Min January 8, 2014 (4:49 pm)

wow! If the sky does clear where is the best spot to see this??

Lura Ercolano January 8, 2014 (10:34 pm)

This handy link suggests 3am might actually be clear:

http://cleardarksky.com/c/Seattlekey.html?1

rs January 9, 2014 (9:04 am)

I dont think the planetary Kp value got even close, so I do not believe anything could have been seen yesterday. http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/rt_plots/kp_3d.html gives you a 3 day look at Kp value, it would need to be about 5 or 6 for our region to see any sort of Aurora.