The Night
Generally disturbed solar wind conditions featured speeds above 500 km/s (they reached 700 km/s later in the night) and Bz briefly as low as -10 nT. The timing was right with these conditions occurring in the late afternoon and early evening. I would be able to go out during my preferred time and try some photography.
Sky conditions were not so great. There were a lot of clouds around, but it looked like there would be some breaks in the evening, so I drove north on Highway 38 to find a clearing.
Peak Activity
I wound up at the boat landing at Pughole Lake north of town. I walked out from the boat launch and walked north a bit to get away from some yard lights. There was a break in the clouds, and the northern sky was glowing pretty brightly. Soon, there was a substorm in progress. I had arrived just in time.
The bright portion of the substorm lasted its typical 15 minutes or so. After that, the auroras dimmed somewhat but also spread over a larger portion of the sky. I continued to photograph this phase, as the colors can often be pretty nice, and there is less of a brightness change between the brightest and dimmest auroras, allowing selection of camera settings that can show the entire sky illumination. Solar wind conditions remained good, but clouds were moving back in, so I left at 9:06 PM.
Wrap-up
It could have been a bit brighter later in the night had the clouds not come back or if I had a willingness to lose some sleep.