Northern lights might dance over WA tonight, but clouds could hide them

A geomagnetic storm arrived Sunday morning, but whether it will be intense enough to see the dancing ribbons of light known as the northern lights could depend on where you view the night sky.

Stubborn cloud cover over the Seattle area means “chances aren’t zero but they’re less than 50%” said Dana Felton, a meteorologist with the local National Weather Service office.

But, he said, “it only takes the clouds to clear for a few minutes to get a shot at it.”

Folks in Whatcom or Skagit counties, where clouds are currently thinner, may have a better chance at seeing the aurora borealis, Felton said.

The solar storm was caused by a “coronal mass ejection” that left the sun Friday night and reached the Earth on Sunday morning, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association said in a post on the social media platform X. Such storms are rated from G1 to G4, the most severe.

G4 activity has been detected in the current storm but the lights can’t be seen during the day. Should there be G4 activity after dark, it’s possible northern lights will be visible as far south as Alabama and Northern California, Felton said.

Even with clear skies, the aurora can be difficult to see if you’re in the middle of a city like Seattle. The closer you can get to dark skies and away from a source of light pollution, the better.

The glow of the aurora is produced when particles from the sun’s magnetic field are blasted into space, eventually colliding with oxygen and nitrogen atoms and molecules in Earth’s upper atmosphere, according to the Space Weather Prediction Center.

Typically, the aurora only stretches into Alaska, Canada and Scandinavia, but an 11-year solar cycle expected to peak this year is making the glow visible in places farther to the south.

Material from The Seattle Times’ archives is included in this story.