CINCINNATI — What a spectacle in the sky! Many stargazers were out on Sunday night to catch the annual peak to the Perseid meteor shower but they got an extra visual effect, the aurora borealis!
Pictures started rolling into our inboxes early Monday morning with questions like, "What am I seeing here? Are the auroras back again?"
And the answer was yes!
Check out this photo from Colerain Township submitted by Bub Lambert and Anya Krodel.
And this one from Jeremy Nesbitt in Mt. Orab, taken around 2 a.m. Monday.
A geomagnetic storm led to auroras being seen as far south as Mississippi. The "storm" strength reached a kp index of 8, which is high enough to see the auroras here in the Tri-State and well into Tennessee and sometimes, portions of Mississippi.
The kp index is forecast to stay around six tonight, which should keep us away from seeing the auroras again. We've already seen a drop in our storm level, so this forecast is on track.
There's another thing working against us tonight and that's the cloud deck moving in from the west. We should be looking at a mostly cloudy sky tonight and even some isolated showers.
Astronomer Dean Regas told me "while there's a chance for an encore this evening, it's a slight chance." Dean noted that the clouds are a big part of this.
He also shared this amazing 4-hour time lapse photo from Ed Finke. Regas said, "this incredible 4-hour exposure captured the star trails around the North Star, a Perseid meteor and the faint glow of the Northern Lights over Cincinnati."
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