Northern lights tonight in Washington

Washington sits at about 54° magnetic latitude, so the aurora reaches it from roughly Kp 5.9 — a few nights a year, on G2–G3 storms. The card below reads NOAA's oval, tonight's dark hours, the cloud and the Moon for Artist Point, Mount Baker right now.

Washington is further north than Maine on the map and further south magnetically — 53–54° at the Canadian border — so a Kp 6 storm is the working threshold and Seattle needs Kp 7. The north Cascades give height above the marine layer: Artist Point at 1 550 m is the classic, when the road is open, with the arc over Canada and no town north of you for 150 km. The Okanogan Highlands east of the mountains are the dry, clear choice from October on. Deception Pass is the sea-level option an hour from Seattle, looking north up the strait with Vancouver's glow on the horizon.