Friday Night, Lights!

A Very rare SOLAR STORM to likely be Earth Directed and is to hit Friday evening.
If there has ever been a time for you to make a drive for the northern lights, Friday night is it based on consistent modeling.
The sun just hurled not one, not two, not even 3, BUT FOUR Earth directed CMEs from X class flares at us during the past 48hrs.
As these impact earth we could see an Aurora display that lasts days and be seen as far south as Oklahoma, perhaps overhead as far south as Nebraska/Illinois!
Space weather models have these multiple CME's arriving by late in the day Friday. With multiples rounds inbound we could see several nights of lights. Skies are looking good in many areas so charge the cameras and get ready for a potentially special weekend.

Prepare for disappointment, as per usual with these events, but if this pans out this could be the big one.

Current weather forecast for the U.P. looks like rain moving in Friday night, so we more than likely won't get to see it due to cloud cover. Hopefully Saturday night will pan out as there is suppose to be a slight break in cloud cover before the next batch of rain moves in for the morning of Mothers Day.

Thanks for the notice. As a kid, I used to go up on the garage roof (nw wisconsin) at night to watch the northern lights. Those are some great memories.

Manitowish Waters last night.

They were phenomenal here in Oxford also!

Batavia IL last night

So I have seen the lights once near Land'o Lakes. My mom has said, a few times she would like to see the lights. She has a number of health issue that makes traveling harder... So I woke her up at 9PM and told her we were going for a drive. We were on the road by 9:30.

One of my friends posted this picture from her house about a mile south of Lake Michigan around 9:30.
I figured we would head that way, but I would take the back roads hoping to see it a bit sooner. It's about a 45-minute drive either way...


Another friend posted this picture later in the night but it was taken about 9:30 as well. This happens to be in the direction I was driving but I did not see anything... It also happens to be out near where Saber1 lives. So I'm curious if he got any good shots...



I got to Lake Michigan and this is what we saw at 10:45


We drove home a bit disappointed... Before going to bed I looked through a few post on FB and saw a lady post a picture near Lake Michigan and it said East of Michigan City. Well, my picture above was just West of Michigan City. So I replied to the picture and asked what time she took hers and showed my picture. She responded that the picture below was at 10:30. Look at the clouds rolling in...




So I just missed it...

Decided to try again Saturday night and you could not see them without using the camera but I did get a few shots. Here are two:

It's not as good as what others got to see, but we saw a little bit of something and my mom had a good time and was happy.



On the right side of the picture, you can just notice the different colors... On the far left side are lights from the Steel Mills. Then the lights dead center under the moon are the lights from Chicago.



Lastly, here are two shots I saw on FB. I figured if you have not seen them you would want to. I would have loved to see these in person...

Wow! That last one is a Beaut!

From last night in MW

Its a sign. Superbowl, February, New Orleans,