Aurora borealis makes appearance in Seattle night sky
Aug 5, 2019, 8:15 AM | Updated: 8:54 am
The aurora borealis in Seattle's sky in August of 2019. (National Weather Service)
(National Weather Service)
Most people have to head pretty far north to catch a glimpse of the aurora borealis. Night owls in Seattle, though, got a special treat early Monday morning, when the night sky lit up.
The National Weather Service’s Seattle office Tweeted out the news around 2 a.m., when it noted it could see the aurora from the roof of its building, “even with urban light pollution.”
The NWS then posted a time lapse photo, showing a ribbon of lights in the sky taking on a distinct green hue.
An auroral view from the roof of NWS Seattle earlier this morning. #aurora #nightsky pic.twitter.com/N9s8NiPty9
— NWS Seattle (@NWSSeattle) August 5, 2019
Typically, the natural phenomena appears closer to the magnetic north pole, extending over Scandinavia, Greenland, Siberia, parts of northern Canada, and Alaska.
So how did Seattle get so lucky? According to the NWS, the interplanetary magnetic field is tilted south, which “bodes well for an aurora sighting in Western Washington.”
A similar occurrence took place in 2016, for what the NWS at the time called the “best aurora display we’ve seen in a decade here in Seattle.”
