The Northern Lights above Iceland
Originally uploaded by huwjhopkins

UPDATE: Looks like this Cliff Mass blog post has been pulled down. We’re trying to find out what’s up, so to speak.

UPDATE x2: NOAA retracted its geomagnetic storm alert. Here’s what we heard back from Cliff Mass:

I pulled it down when NOAA retracted the solar storm warning…. my blog was only up a few minutes so I thought it was ok to just delete it….little did I know…cliff

Original Post:
Writing about celestial events in the Pacific Northwest is often just cruel. Cloudy skies do not do much for eclipses, meteor storms or, in tonight’s case a possible view of an aurora event in the skies over Washington State :

NOAA has issued a geomagnetic storm alert with a strong solar wind potentially interfering with alarms, satellites and causing an aurora in the night sky.

The first question is whether there will be an aurora. You can check that at the NOAA aurora site for the current locations:

http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/pmap/

If that cosmic element comes to pass, the next requirement to smite the usual Seattle disappointment with night sky activity are breaks in the cloud cover. No guarantees — but Cliff Mass says it’s possible. Worth getting your hopes up, at least a little bit, no?