Can you see the aurora borealis right now?

it is bc, of this Im in NJ, im gunna go see if I can see from my garage roof. brb

Too cloudy here in northern New Hampshire.

I looked a couple hours ago and didn’t see anything. I’ll check again and report back.

It is overcast :-( besides that there is probably too much light pollution where i am anyway, plus I may be too far south.

Maine – nothing but heavy rain right now. Is it possible to see the aurora borealis during rain?

@rpmpseudonym

I would say that rainclouds probably block all or most terrestrial views of the AB because IIRC, the AB occurs mostly in the ionosphere, whereas water-vapor clouds are usually confined to the tropospheric and the stratospheric layers below.

@Brian1946 Then I am going to bed. :)

We’re supposed to have the Aurora Australis down here, but the news stations can’t decide whether its now or last night. Its a clear night here, but I think its also a lot further south than I am.

No.

And I am jealous.

We have been told we will be able to see the aurora borealis late tonight.
I am in the UK.
I am waiting with eager anticipation!

They were supposed to be visible in Northern New England last night, but here in Boston we are probably too far south and the light pollution of the city would make all but the truly spectacular displays invisible to us anyway. I’ve only seen them once, and that was in the outlying suburbs of St. Paul MN. It’s an awe inspiring experience well worth traveling great distances to view.

Is it possible for me to have seen the flashes from behind clouds? I went outside at 4am & there were these flashes of muted light coming from behind the clouds. I was facing north, northwest. It had just finished thundering & raining (no lightning). So was it aurora borealis that I saw?

@rpmpseudonym Might have been. I was out about 0430 in northern New Hampshire, far from any light pollution. Might have seen a bit of colored light through the cloud cover, hard to say.

@rpmpseudonym it could have been lightning…..if there is thunder…...there is lightning somewhere close, usually.

I’m in CT and it’s still too light out. Don’t see anything yet! :(

@rpmpseudonym I would not have thought so till the news showed a slide show of it this evening. You could see a perfectly outlined cloud across the horizon with the curtain of light reaching above it, but also shining through it.

I’ve never seen it, nor heard of anyone who has. I don’t think it happens in the UK?

@downtide Seen it once in northern Scotland,also Alaska, Quebec, northern New England and the Aurora Australis in Antarctica.

@downtide You can actually see it sometimes, depending on the intensity of the storm according to the Kp index. Generally, it would have to be pretty high for you to see it (around an 8 or 9) – and these solar flares were rated a 6. Here’s a map that you can look at, to give you a good idea: http://www.gedds.alaska.edu/auroraforecast/Interpreting.htm

aw man, if it wasnt cloudy, i probably would have seen it

According to the news it’s supposed to be visible from here but we’re under a blanket of rainclouds so we can’t see the sky at all.

@downtide How unfortunate you had to be under the clouds. It is a rarity to see the aurora so far south. But this particular solar storm was not a huge one and we are now heading into a new solar maximum. Perhaps the dreaded 2012 will bring one that’s visible from your latitude and not clouded out of view.

@ETpro I, too, thought that these solar flares coinciding with the 2012 “prophecies” was rather hilarious.

@DrasticDreamer Indeed. The Universe has a perverse sense of humor. :-)