A large solar flare is expected to hit Earth today which could very well effect cell phone service and could even cause power outages etc. etc. etc.

BUT, because of the solar flare, one could expect to see the Northern Lights as far south as Oregon this evening.

Solar Flare

I sat out in the hot tub looking north last night until I was wrinkled like a prune. All I saw was planes, The Big Dipper, North Star etc. A little glow on the horizon from Victoria, but no northern lights.

I saw them late,, about 2am from north of Poulsbo,,, so nice,,,

Right now it appears we are in a solar mega cycle. The solar maximum was to peak in middle 2000. That appears not to be the case.
I believe the very erratic weather as of late is not a coincidence but related to this very phenomina. Every time there is a massive flare we are being hit with a buttload of xrays from the sun. Anyone of you notice the intense sunlight the last few days? The x ray flux is slowing creeping to the top of the charts. This could get very intresting and serious over the next 10 days or so. If we get hit with a big one or back to back big ones look for alot of electrical failures here on terra firma. Also massive erratic weather around the globe. Also I doubt if the weird extemley fast flooding is over on our local rivers.
Chrome

I don't know whether it's the end of the world or not but the sunset in Tacoma last night was the most beautiful I have ever seen......sort of a robins egg blue sky with really bright slashes of orange etc............super cool. It had to be a result of the flare.......I have lived where I can look over the water at sunset for 50years and this was the best ever!

I looked for the northern lights...missed 'em.

The sunset, however, was pretty spectacular for this time of year.

Fish on...

Todd.

Here's where you can check out the map of them in future days:

http://www.sel.noaa.gov/SWN/

Dances, the sunset may have been due to the burning out our way. With the recent rains, slash burns are in full force and they set off about 1/2 of Clallam County yesterday, more today