Northern Lights Tonight in New York

In New York, aurora is a major-storm event. The threshold is Kp 5.9, and nights that reach it happen only in strong geomagnetic storms. When one does, the display is a faint red or pink glow low in the north, and a phone camera on night mode is often the first thing to confirm it.

The five boroughs are about as bright as a sky gets. Manhattan, Newark and the sprawl across the Hudson fill the northern horizon with light, so nothing in the city itself works. Plan on a drive of an hour or more to get a north-facing view with real dark overhead.

The Shawangunk Ridge and the Hudson Valley are the best realistic day trip: the preserve at Minnewaska sits on a high ridge with open sky to the north. Long Island looks the wrong way, because its north shore faces Connecticut and the Sound while the dark ocean is to the south. For a truly dark sky, Cherry Springs in Pennsylvania is a long drive that needs to be planned as an overnight.