Monday/ on Northern Lights watch

Seattle is on North America’s west coast, slightly below that speck that is Vancouver Island.

There were reports on Sunday night that Seattleites may see the Northern Lights*, and indeed, it was visible from here.  (For the record: I did make an effort to get a clear look at the northern skies look at around 11, but did not see anything!).

*The Northern Lights (‘aurora borealis’) are generated during geomagnetic storms in Earth’s atmosphere. During solar flares, clouds of electrons, ions, and atoms are expelled through the corona of the sun into space. When these clouds of particles reach Earth a day or two later, they interact with gas molecules in the atmosphere, resulting in the greenish color displays.

Skunk Bay is near Hansville out on the Kitsap Peninsula. Yes, this sighting is not nearly as spectacular as the ones one would get further up north in Alaska, but hey, there it is. Pretty cool.

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