Northern lights tonight in Iowa

Iowa sits at about 51° magnetic latitude, so the aurora reaches it from roughly Kp 7.5 — rare: G4 storms, once or twice a year at solar maximum. The card below reads NOAA's oval, tonight's dark hours, the cloud and the Moon for Loess Hills, Preparation Canyon right now.

Iowa is at 50–53° magnetic latitude, a G3–G4 state: Kp 7 brings a low arc to the north-east corner, Kp 8 reaches Des Moines. The Loess Hills give height and a western horizon of nothing; Yellow River forest in the north-east is the darkest public land and looks across the Mississippi toward Wisconsin. Rathbun is the southern lake with an open north shore. Iowa's advantage over its neighbours is cloud: the driest winter skies in the Midwest, which is why a Kp 7 night here is worth more than a Kp 7 night in Michigan's lake-effect belt.