A “Watch” has been issued by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for the possibility of a visible aurora borealis in Western Washington from Wednesday night through Thursday night.
The G3 Geomagnetic storm could provide a show as far south as the border of Washington and Oregon on Wednesday night.
Our friends at @NWSSWPC have just issued a Watch for a G3 Geomagnetic Storm for the evening of 8/17 through 8/18. This could mean visible aurora borealis as far south as WA/OR border Wednesday night. For space weather forecasts & information visit https://t.co/IV6LKLP1SR #wawx pic.twitter.com/6cfckcu6UG
— NWS Seattle (@NWSSeattle) August 16, 2022
In July, thanks to two solar storms, the northern lights made an appearance over the Puget Sound, according to several photographs of the natural event.
The northern lights, or aurora borealis, are lights in the night sky caused when solar winds create disturbances in the magnetosphere.
The first storm arrived early July 19, illuminating the night sky most of the night.
Photographer Sigma Sreedharan captured the lights dancing above Seattle at 1:28 a.m.
#NorthernLights over #Seattle from last night/earlier this morning. I love catching the #aurora over the city, it is a hard thing to do with all that light pollution, but that is the fun part right? This one is from around 1:28am when those pretty pillars showed up. pic.twitter.com/pS13rApg7r
— Sigma Sreedharan (She/Her) | Seattle (@sigmas) July 19, 2022
@TamithaSkov this was taken at 6,000’ between Olympia and Seattle (7-19-22) with an iPhone 13pro. The light show was spectacular under night vision goggles (NVG), only not in color. The naked eye did not pick up all the colors, but more of a faint glow. pic.twitter.com/FuIzdUipyV
— RickPeterson63 (@RPeterson63) July 19, 2022
The best way to see it will likely be using time-lapse photography or long-exposure photos.
More information can be found at spaceweather.gov.
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