Living in central Illinois, we occasionally get to see the aurora here, but it's pretty rare. Maybe once or twice a year when the sun is near it's solar max, and they'll be very faint. But maybe once a decade there will be a storm. During the last solar maximum, 4-5 years ago, there was a huge auroral storm that made it this far south. It was magnificent. My wife and I spent over an hour out in the middle of a soybean field watching the show. I've never seen anything like it before. One of the most beautiful things I've ever seen.
This is a good web page to keep track of when the conditions are right for Aurora. Keep an eye on the 'Geomagnetic Storms'.
SpaceWeather.com is another great site for all sorts of neat stuff.
I'm also signed up with
Aurora Chasers. Their server sends me an email when planetary Kp conditions are high enough that the aurora
may be visible where I live. I've gotten several false alarms over the years, but there have been a couple of times where it's worked. If you're serious about seeing auroras, check it out.
