Back to Oregon Coast

Contact Advertise on BeachConnection .net
All Content, unless otherwise attributed, copyright BeachConnection.net Unauthorized use or publication is not permitted

Possible Northern Lights In Oregon and the Coast Next Two Nights

Published 03/07/2012

(Portland, Oregon) – According to OMSI, there's a slight chance that Oregon residents – including the Oregon coast – could catch sight of the aurora borealis tonight and Thursday night (above: faint northern lights seen this fall in the Oregon coast range) .

OMSI planetarium manager Jim Todd called it a “slight chance,” but with a bundle of solar flare activity today, some awesome sights have been available to others around the world.

“Unfortunately most of the current activities from the flares are occurring during daytime hours in the Pacific Time Zone,” Todd said.

Earlier today, what was described as a “bright” Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) was hurled at the Earth from a known large sunspot. SpaceWeather.com has said that some sizable geomagnetic storms are already underway in the Earth's atmosphere because of earlier sunspot activity.

Oregon coast range this fall

“As a result of the blast, a radiation storm is underway and a CME will likely hit Earth's magnetic field in a day or so,” the website reports in an article on this storm.

Todd said certain conditions need to happen here in Oregon for this to be seen, including the strength of the storm activity and its timing. But he suggested midnight will be a good time to go out and check.

“The full moon will be on Thursday and will interfere viewing the fainter auroras,” Todd said. “Best to move away from the city lights to improve visibility of the auroras. Look north and watch for any changing curtain of colors which could last for few seconds to several minutes. The auroras may appear as faint green and red haze above the northern horizon. If you have a DSLR camera with low F-stop settings, try a few seconds exposures to verify the auroras.”

On the Oregon coast, given the right cloud conditions, most spots are rural enough that city lights won't be an issue. But for the coast, you'll want to find places that don't have the view blocked to the north. Cannon Beach may be fairly blocked by Tillamook Head, but heading south or north of Cannon Beach may solve that problem. Seaside and Astoria should be good for this. Farther south of Manzanita, like at Rockaway Beach or Garibaldi will likely feature less blockage from Neahkahnie Mountain.

On the central Oregon coast, and farther south towards Lincoln City, Newport, Bandon and Brookings, chances decrease greatly. Todd said the farther north you are, the better the chance, which translates to either north Oregon coast, the Gorge and the Portland and Vancouver, Washington area.

Some good glimpses of the northern lights were already spotted in Seattle Tuesday night.

According to NASA, CME's are the largest explosion in the solar system, nearly one billion times the strength of a single nuclear bomb.

More nighttime photos of the Oregon coast below:

More About Oregon Coast hotels, lodging.....

More About Oregon Coast Restaurants, Dining.....

LATEST OREGON COAST NEWS STORIES