Northern lights put on dazzling show across Eastern WA and Tri-Cities night sky

The northern lights colored the Tri-Cities sky Friday night with a spectacular light show.

The clear warm night drew thousands out into the darkness hoping to see the often elusive dancing display.

It didn’t disappoint.

The explosions of plasma and magnetic fields from the sun’s corona painted not just the horizon but much of sky for a few hours.

Hundreds of Tri-City Herald readers shared their photos and videos on Facebook of the dazzling exhibit that began about 10:30 p.m.

They captured shots with friends, family and even their cars.

Traffic was heavy on some rural highways as people tried to get away from the city lights for a better look.

On Hanford Route 10 north of Richland at the nuclear site cars stopped and lined both sides of the road.

Other people headed to the Horse Heaven Hills, Jump Off Joe Butte, west of Burbank and the Connell area to get away from city lights. Some climbed Badger and Candy mountains for a good view of the northern sky.

But many managed to see a beautiful sky from their backyards and city parks.

The Space Weather Prediction Center of the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration issued a rare Severe (G4) Geomagnetic Storm Watch for Friday night.

It was the first G4 watch it had issued since 2005.

NOAA officials had said there was a chance that the aurora borealis could be seen over the northern half of the United States and possibly as far south as Northern California.

There was a possibility that some northern lights could be seen through the weekend, they said.

“(S)torming of varying intensity could persist through at least Sunday,” said NOAA.

Many people were posting on social media after catching Friday’s display that they planned to watch for the northern lights again on Saturday night.

The northern lights are the results of coronal mass ejections that cause geomagnetic storms as they arrive at Earth.