A Quest For Northern Lights in the PNW

Northern lights don't usually appear in the pacific northwest. But every once in awhile we get lucky and they make it onto the northern lights forecast.

Northern lights are a pretty interesting phenomenon.

According to the Northern Lights Centre, "The Northern Lights are actually the result of collisions between gaseous particles in the Earth's atmosphere with charged particles released from the sun's atmosphere."

How interesting! Who would have thought that it was something so simple!

They go on to say that the reason that northern lights primarily occur near the northern pole is because of the earth's magnetic field.

After seeing a 10% chance for northern lights on the forecast, I headed to the hills with my family, in hopes of seeing the rare spectacle for myself. And yes, I did say forecast.

The NOAA Space and Weather Prediction Center has an Aurora doppler feed that forecasts the occurrence every 30 minutes.

To see northern lights for yourself, check the forecast, head to somewhere nice and dark, and you may be magically surprised!