Aurora borealis puts on show in Washington night skies with chance of encore Friday

A strong geomagnetic storm brought the aurora borealis to night skies across Western Washington overnight between Wednesday and Thursday.

Although many in Western Washington areas had visibility obscured by cloud cover, Skunk Bay Weather’s time lapse camera positioned near Hansville facing the Puget Sound lucked out, with brief cloud breaks delivering flashes of green light on the horizon starting around 3 a.m. on Thursday.

Weather conditions were more favorable east of the Cascades, with the Washington Department of Transportation picking up the full experience just south of Deer Park.

Decided to stay up late and go for a drive to see the Northern Lights. Pretty good show going on right now! If you plan to see them tonight, be safe, bundle up, get away from city lights and please don’t park along side highways. #NorthernLights #AuroraBorealis pic.twitter.com/lGrJ5pC8tw

— WSDOT East (@WSDOT_East) March 31, 2022

The geomagnetic storm is expected to be with us through Friday, with a chance the aurora makes an encore appearance early tomorrow morning. For some, that could also disrupt GPS devices and high-frequency radio signals while the storm passes.

The aurora borealis last made an appearance in the region in early February, after a minor geomagnetic storm made it visible across Washington, Idaho, Wyoming, and other parts of the northern United States. Prior to that, it showed up in October of 2021 thanks to a solar flare that emanated off the sun.

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