The aurora chase high

I usually will surrender to about the next 36 hours of weather, of cloud forecast maps. The night immediately ahead, and then the next night or sometimes 2, but never really more than that. Anything further out probably isn’t worth the energy, especially this time of the year. I like knowing what’s immediately around the corner, it’s good to keep an eye on that, and notice trends, but anything more than a couple days away is just not worth worrying over.

For this night, it was probable we’d see the clouds clear overnight, but not until late. So I picked up my guests about an hour later than usual and we headed straight out to meet the cloud cover beginning to break. Within an hour, there was more clear sky than cloud and the soon after the aurora was spectacular overhead. It felt like it danced forever and this natural high just wouldn’t leave me. It was everything I love so much about this lifestyle.

This is my 11th year chasing the aurora every night, of doing this as my career, and I know not every night will be so fortunate. I know there will be nights without such clarity and such opportunity. There will be nights we are socked in under cloud in every direction. For now though, the nights like these are just the best. They are exactly why I fell so in love with the aurora chase, and why after 18 years since my first chase, I remain so in love with it.

An easy could-have-been all nighter

It was coming up to 3:30 when I finally had to begin folding up tripods, again, for the last time. It was a live transition from ‘obsessively photograph everything’ to a more humbled amazement at what a night we’ve had. Warms winds - genuinely warm winds - no mosquitos, and time and time over - breathtaking aurora that danced over us. This was the best of autumn nights.

And it could have easily enough been an all-nighter through to sunrise, which wasn’t all that far away by the end, but I did need to sleep and do this all over again tomorrow still.

A hot mess

Everything was looking perfect mid-afternoon. Clear blue sky, not a hint of smoke in the air and clear skies forecasted for the next several days and nights. We were beginning a few day heatwave - something I would begrudgingly tolerate if it meant clear sky at night.

Temperatures were into the high 20s, 29 today, which turned my spare bedroom yoga space into a full blown hot yoga studio.

Hard pass, thanks.

I’ll get back to my slave driver Jessica on Fitness+ in a couple days again when the whole upstairs isn’t a smokey sauna.

So a short escape out of town late did yield much better sky clarity. The forest fire smoke had cleared for several hours before rolling back in ending our night a little earlier than usual, but all things considered, we were very, very lucky in our timing.

Well practiced patience

My guests this night had been out the previous two nights already.

Their first night, my previous post, was a long, patient night resulting in ultimately a quiet night of auroral activity. Beautiful still, but definitely quiet.

Their second night, they waited out a thunderstorm for clearing skies to reveal a beautiful display of the northern lights. I enjoyed this night so much from home on a night off, running from window to window watching incredible lightning flashes and rumbles of thunder.

Then finally with me, our night started once again very quietly, to in all honesty, rather poor aurora conditions. But after a few hours and a lot of patience, the aurora danced beautifully overhead showing subtle colour to the naked eye. The wait was so, so worth it - as it always, always is.

The fall of the cloud factory

Even in the west - ol’ reliable - we found ourselves a little bit stuck with some lingering cloud. We were just at the edge, but couldn’t quite get fully out from under it. The cloud continually passed quickly, but for how fast it blew over, more would form just behind it.

But a few more kilometres down the highway, and a little more time passed, the clouds had finally left us with clear sky and faint but steady aurora until the early hours.