I never imagined I would get to see the Aurora Borealis at all…let alone in Utah! However, Quebec City does seem like a somewhat more likely place to see them, so when we came here it did cross my mind that they might be visible at some point. But who has time to keep abreast of such things? There are aurora trackers you can check, but…you have to check them! I never think of it!
Luckily there are those in my circle who DO think of it. Sam is one of them. Seb is another. My brother Karl is another. So in October I was made aware that there had been a large coronal mass ejection which might cause aurora. Sam kept an eye on the predictions throughout the next day or two, though, and when it looked like it was going to be disappointing, we forgot about it.
BUT LUCKILY! Daisy and I were standing out on the balcony looking out at the city before bed, as we often do. And Daisy said, "I see light in the sky like we did that time we saw the aurora."
I said, "Oh, hmm…could be!" (politely, because I didn't want to dash her dear little hopes, but I did not see anything.)
We took a picture. And yes…it did look like it could be the lights! Or possibly clouds. But the forecast was good for it so Sam ran and got the car and we drove north!
Unfortunately, north was precisely the direction the clouds were going—the actual clouds, not the sort-of-cloudy-looking aurora. And we drove up into the mountains right into them. We were texting and talking on the phone with Sebastian (who was on his own aurora hunt and ended up seeing them on a red-eye flight to Chicago or somewhere) and feeling so worried that it wouldn't clear up! "Well, we did see them already in Utah, which is more than we ever thought we'd get to see," we kept saying, trying to console ourselves.
It was pretty interesting even with the clouds and intermittent rain, though. You could definitely see the green glow diffused through the clouds! Even with your naked eye you could. It looked like there was a city somewhere back behind the clouds lighting them up, though of course, there wasn't—but that's how my mind kept wanting to interpret it, since of course it makes no sense to have the sky itself just glowing!
The clouds were moving fast, especially when we got up into the mountains past Jacques Cartier National Park. The glow of the aurora would get brighter and dimmer as the clouds thinned and thickened. We got some rain. But the clouds never actually moved fully away! It was frustrating because we could tell the aurora was really bright and strong…if we could have just blown away those clouds! We drove along the pitch-dark highway (it was after midnight by this time), Daisy and I leaning and peering through our windows and saying, "there! I see light! I can see shimmering! I can see stripes in the sky!"…and then we'd find a spot to pull over and look and it would be cloudy again.
We did get a few good glimpses of the lights! You really can tell the difference between the the clouds and the aurora, even though at first glance your mind wants to tell you the aurora is a cloud. But there is definite color and direction to the aurora!
And you can likewise tell when what you're looking up at is…just clouds.
At one point the light behind the clouds got very bright and started pulsing and shimmering and we pulled over in a very precarious spot because we could tell something cool was happening. We got out (Daisy and I wrapped in our blankets; it was freezing) and looked straight up into the sky and the clouds parted for a minute and we saw this:
I think this straight-up view is so amazing! Looking right up into the "curtains." In Utah we could tell we were far south of the actual light—we were looking up sideways at it. So I guess this view is a result of being so much farther north in latitude in Quebec. The lights are right overhead! It was so amazing, like looking up into a space portal or a wormhole or something science fiction-y!
But after just a minute or two, maybe less, the clouds blew back overhead and the aurora became more of just a faint glow again. We drove and drove for a long time hoping to get into the open somehow, but if anything the clouds were getting even thicker, so we turned around and drove back toward the city.
We stopped a few more times just to watch the weird streaky glow come and go behind the clouds. It really was quite eerie. You could see it nearly this bright with your naked eye, but it looked a little less green.
Finally we got too cold, so we got back in the car, but we still felt kind of unsatisfied because we knew the aurora was there, probably dancing and doing all kinds of interesting things back behind the cloud cover where we couldn't see it! So we decided to drive out to l'Île d'Orléans and just see if the sky was clearer. It was definitely clearer over the city and our house but we didn't know if the city lights would be too bright. The island isn't far away, but we thought it might be a bit darker over there.
It was 2 or 3 a.m. by this point and when we drove across the bridge, we saw a police car parked at one end of it. The officer was standing outside her car and pointed at us and motioned us to pull over. We were so confused, not having been speeding or swerving or doing anything of concern. She came over to the car and spoke to Sam in French, then English. "What are you doing out tonight so late?" she said, pleasantly enough. "You have a had a little something to drink, yes?" Sam, horrified, said "No!" (And I said "No!" just as vehemently from the passenger seat.) We explained we were going out to look at the aurora. I waved my camera at her. The officer looked at Daisy in the backseat, eyed Sam and me again, and then nodded. "All right. Bonne soirée!"
That was a little unnerving, but all right. On we went. I was looking back across the river at the hills by Chutes Montmorency and thinking, "What a shame. The clouds are blowing over here as well. I see a whole bank of them coming over the hills."
Then: "Those clouds sure are bright. What are they, snow clouds? Maybe the city lights are shining on them. Weird, though, because the city is over the other direction…ohhhhhh." Duh. As soon as we got out onto the dark road circling the island, our eyes started to adjust and we could see the colors!
There are streetlights all along that road, so we couldn't find anywhere quite as completely dark as we would have liked. But it didn't matter. The aurora was bright enough to show up anyway! And it was so beautiful!
It was really all around, once we started looking. Bright curtains and stripes across the river. And right straight up above us too!
The aurora were constantly shifting and rippling—you could actually see the ripples of energy going up and down like waves or pulses of light. Sebastian got some cool video of that from the plane where he saw them.
We were able to start seeing more colors too; I'm not sure if it was because the aurora had gotten more intense or just because it was quite dark and our eyes were gradually getting more sensitive and picking more light up.
Daisy sat up on the van to watch. (Did I mention she was the only one that wanted to come see the aurora with us? We woke up and asked the other kids up before we left, but everyone was too tired. )
It is so mesmerizing to watch the lights dance. We kept saying, "Okay, we should go home!"—but then we just couldn't stop watching! The colors and patterns are constantly changing, and it gives you an urgent feeling like if you turn away for even a moment you might miss something amazing! (Perhaps it's that powerful variable-interval reinforcement you learn about in Psychology classes. Like gambling.)
(that vertical yellow line is the antenna of the van, lit up by the streetlight! ha!)
So many overlapping layers of light
So stripe-y!
I can't decide if I like the side or the underneath view better!
Rainbow gradient
Curtain folds
The clouds in front give a cool sense of scale, I think
There's Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré lit up there on the other shore, see it?
I love the green light reflected in the river here
It got really streaky for a minute!
Okay! okay! It's 4 a.m., we really do have to go home!
So we did. And we took one more quick look and we could see the aurora still from my balcony…even above the bright city lights! That was cool. And then we were SO tired and went to bed only to have to wake up in a couple hours…but it was worth it! And I think I'd do it every night if it meant I could see such beautiful aurora again! What an amazing experience!
Wow! Just wow!!
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