The northern lights, or aurora borealis, illuminate the night sky above fishermen on the ice of Finnish Gulf outside St. Petersburg, Russia, Saturday, Jan. 15, 2022.
SPOKANE, Wash.– The combination of a clear winter night and the nighttime arrival of a geomagnetic storm can mean a great chance to see the Northern Lights. During wintertime in the Inland Northwest though, those conditions rarely show up at the same time.
However, Wednesday night could be a rare winter night where it’s worth to go out hunting for the Aurora.
A solar storm that erupted from the sun on February 6 has the potential to crank up the Aurora when it arrives on the night of February 9 in the western hemisphere. While this is not forecast to be an especially powerful storm according to the Space Weather Prediction Center, it has the potential to bring the Northern Lights down across all of Canada and parts of the Northern Plains.
Lines represent how far south the Aurora could be seen overhead for each Kp level of solar storm.
If the storm were to reach its full potential, it would be visible on the horizon in much of the Inland Northwest. The predicted arrival time lines up good for us too, from 7 p.m. Wednesday to 4 a.m. Thursday in the Pacific time zone.
You can’t observe what’s blocked by clouds, though. Lucky for us, this strong high-pressure weather pattern and a lack of high moisture and fog has kept skies clear and will continue to do so tonight. This is the main reason why searching for the Northern Lights can be such a fruitless pursuit this time of the year, it’s often just too cloudy.
Once the sun goes down, find a dark spot and look for some hazy white or green on the horizon.
You can check what’s called the Kp level here. It has to be at 5 or higher for the Inland Northwest to have a chance of glimpsing the Aurora.
Just remember that solar storms are often a bust, but the great weather tonight means it’s worth checking out just in case.
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February 09, 2022 at 11:22PM
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You might be able to catch the Northern Lights tonight - KXLY Spokane
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