The sun erupted Tuesday morning, unleashing a major solar flare.
It’s the strongest of 2025, according to Space.com.
Three solar flares unleashed a stream of charged particles directed at the Earth, likely to produce Northern Lights displays Tuesday through Wednesday night.
The third in this sequence has the potential to be the strongest since the extreme event of May 2024, though there is some potential to see auroral activity in Western Washington skies with the first of these eruptions arriving Tuesday evening.
There will be a “squeeze play” of sorts with clouds moving into Western Washington as the skies have the potential to light up Tuesday evening, mainly after 6-7 p.m.
The best chances to see a glow will be away from city lights and on the northern horizon. However, unlike weather forecasting, forecasting “space weather” like Northern Lights holds a much greater uncertainty. Conditions could change very quickly, and any “show” could quickly ramp up, or just as quickly disappear.
The strongest of the coronal mass ejections — the charged particles — will still likely arrive during the daylight morning hours of Wednesday, Pacific time, and thus we wouldn’t be able to see it. And, our skies will be cloud-filled.
The same conditions will exist on Wednesday night.
However, the few hours Tuesday evening before the skies cloud up could be our only chance to catch the glow from Northern Lights, but remember that being in or near cities will make viewing much more difficult because of light pollution. A better option if you cannot see a glow with the naked eye will be a longer exposure on a camera or phone camera.
If you catch the Northern Lights, we’d love to see them! Send your photos to newstips@kiro7.com.
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