November 5, 2018 Auroras

Fosston, MN

I don't frequently drive this far to see auroras (Fosston is two hours west of me), but on this evening, I had a hunch things would be interesting.  I had just gotten back from the Aurora Summit '18 in Two Harbors, MN, where we had not seen auroras.  On the second of the two nights there, the skies cleared, but the long-awaited coronal hole (the same one from September 11) was really late.  The summit ended, and we went home fairly empty-handed (aside from some great companionship).

Later in the afternoon, the solar wind conditions started to look a bit more promising, but the clouds had moved into north central and northeastern Minnesota, so I decided to drive west in hope of finding some clearing.  I had to drive a full two hours, and when I got to the cloud edge, I searched for a lake with a public access on the south side. It was a bit more difficult in this part of the state. The lakes were plentiful enough, but the landscape was more open, and there were farms around. Farmers really pay close attention to anything suspicious or unusual within at least a mile radius of their homes.  I was afraid I would catch somebody's attention.

Thankfully, I was able to slip quietly enough into a public boat lauch that I did not raise any suspicion other than a dog that barked for at least half an hour after I arrived. I was afraid that would get its owner's attention, but I stayed quiet, and maybe the dog was a perpetual barker, making the barking sound like nothing was amiss.

Actually, Bz had been completely uninteresting during the last hour of my trip, but I continued west, thinking I could maybe catch the last of the auroras before they faded out.  When I arrived, there was really no glow at all, but I stuck around, and Bz then went south.  The horizon brightened, and many interesting shapes appeared in the all-green auroras.

A nice RFD and wall cloud wrapping around a wedge tornado at 0444 UTC (10:44 PM Central Standard Time).

A cropped shot of the wedge at 10:49 PM (0449 UTC).

A more complex structure now at 0455 UTC (10:55 CST).

A bit more variety of color at 11:00 PM CST (0500 UTC).

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