Three things lined up today, providing an exciting evening of aurora watching.
- Tickling of the ionosphere – with the peaking of the 11-year solar cycle, it’s been ramping up. But this week, K-index of 9 and blobs-o’-sun heading our way.
![Space weather forecast for May 10, 2024. In the middle is a huge uptick in geomagnetic storm severity.](https://www.wt8p.com/wp-content/uploads/IMG_0086.jpg)
- Darkness – normally these are seen in Winter because nights are longer. But there’s also an issue with light pollution. The state map is pretty much “anywhere there’s people.”
![Light pollution map of Washington State. Where there's people, there's lots and lots of light pollution](https://www.wt8p.com/wp-content/uploads/image-74.png)
- Clear skies – aaaaaannnnddddd this is where we have problems. From mid-September through mid-June is more likely to have cloud cover and light, chronic rain.
![Seattle area weather forecast from 2024-05-07 through 2024-05-11](https://www.wt8p.com/wp-content/uploads/image-75.png)
Having all three occur at the same time is rare.