The Northern Lights On The Oregon Coast 5.10.24-5.11.24

I Took So Many Pictures

May 11, 2024

Yesterday I kept hearing on the news about the “coronal mass ejection” (super funny name btw) that was occurring on the sun, and we got a geomagnetic storm warning from NOAA.

Never heard of that before.

But, the storm was going to possibly create a great Northern Lights display. I had my doubts, but it also happened to be one of the very few clear nights here on the Oregon Coast.

So we waited for night.

We live up on a ridge looking Northwest in Newport, Oregon. It’s usually raining or fogging. Sometimes the fog comes in after dark. But it stayed clear last night.

As soon as 10:00 hit, we though we could see the Aurora. But it looked more like light pollution to the north, but there’s not really anything up there. So, we jumped in the car and headed to Depot Bay.

At Boiler Bay State Scenic Viewpoint we thought, “This’ll be a good spot. Nobody is ever here at night.”

The parking lot was packed! There’s more space nerds than me out there.

And then, the first real lights began to form into beams. Rays? There were pinks, reds and greens. It got very vivid.

We watched with the crowd for a while and then headed up to the Cape Foulweather Lookout, a 500 foot overlook. And we got some pretty good views there.

At around 11:30 we headed home.

And that’s when we got some of the best views of the Northern Lights. We just sat on the porch for an hour watching them.

Pretty Cool. I think I almost filled up my iPhone’s storage with pictures. Here are my favorite ones: