HEADS UP: Aurora (Northern Lights) possibility tonight – updated

12:46 PM: Heads-up from West Seattle educator/expert skywatcher Alice Enevoldsen: “Really high aurora alert starting *now*. We’ll see if it lasts until dark here. It may not.” But, in case it does, now you know to check for conditions tonight. See this page on Alice’s website for links to check for aurora possibilities as well as advice on how/where to look, when it’s happening.

5:40 PM: Still a possibility! From Alice’s links, this is the one that will show you if an aurora is happening or imminent.

10:58 PM: We’ve been watching it through the evening, as has Alice, and our photographer even went out to Myrtle Reservoir Park to look. In all, no reports so far.

12:35 AM: Suddenly looking promising, we just heard from Alice. Levels are higher than they’ve been all night.

Alice January 19, 2026 (5:51 pm)

Activity is dropping off dramatically as the darkness falls here on the West Coast. I don’t think there’s supposed to be a second peak on this storm, but keep an eye out and listen to the space weather experts.

At the moment the numbers are still high enough for Seattle to have a chance, if it were dark enough.

Trileigh January 19, 2026 (6:33 pm)

Alice, thanks as always for being such a great resident expert! We’re so lucky to have you here.

Suzanne January 19, 2026 (10:52 pm)

Thank you Alice! Your presentations are always fascinating and fun, and your website is terrific — super helpful and easy to understand. Really good to get the head’s up that tonight wasn’t going to work out for seeing the Northern Lights. I love your analogy that predicting the Aurora is like predicting rainbows, and that focusing on the conditions is more accurate than predicting the event itself.

Johannes Kepler January 20, 2026 (2:38 am)

At around 1:30 am, the OVATION Aurora Model referenced by Alice showed a 100% probability of the aurora extending down to the US/Canada border and low to almost 50% probability covering most of the state of Washington.

So, I went out around 1:45 to take a look and found lots of clouds (or heavy fog) to the west (overlooking Lincoln Park). But there was a small opening in the clouds directly overhead and, surprisingly to the north. A few faint stars were visible in this opening. The north horizon was obscured by fog, but I thought I saw some greenish, faint light moving around a bit just above those clouds. But maybe I just saw what I wanted to see?

Either way, the clouds/fog seemed to get worse and there was nothing to see after about 2 am. As of 2:30 am the OVATION Aurora Model shows the activity rapidly moving away from Washington as the earth rotates east towards the sun.