Northern Lights Forecast for Houston

From the outskirts, yes, in the strongest storms. Photos have come from Cypress, Tomball, Baytown, The Woodlands, Lake Conroe, Livingston and the Bolivar Peninsula, and from Bryan, about 90 miles northwest. Houston itself has too much light pollution for the aurora to overcome.

North, out from under the light dome. Sam Houston National Forest starts about 50 miles up I-45 around New Waverly, Huntsville State Park is about 70 miles north inside the forest, and Lake Livingston State Park is about 75 miles northeast. Lake Conroe and Livingston are among the places the aurora has been photographed from, and the lakes give you a low, open horizon, which matters when the aurora is only a glow at the edge of the sky.

Because at 29.8°N the aurora sits right on the northern horizon, and what reaches this far south is the red top of it. A phone in night mode stacks several seconds of light and pulls out red and pink that your eyes never register. In the strongest storms people in Cypress, Baytown and Sealy have posted photos of pink and green.

Not really, though it is the region's public observatory. It sits in Brazos Bend State Park, 45 miles southwest of downtown near Needville, and is run by the Houston Museum of Natural Science. The problem for the aurora is direction: from Brazos Bend the Houston light dome is in the north, exactly where the lights would be. For a storm, drive north to Sam Houston National Forest or Lake Livingston instead.

In Houston, you usually need at least Kp 9 to have a reasonable chance of seeing the northern lights. Lower Kp can still bring a faint aurora display low on the northern horizon, but it is less common.

This is based on magnetic latitude, and Kp index is a global geomagnetic index, so treat it as a rule of thumb, not a location-specific guarantee.

Tonight, the NOAA Kp index forecast is 1.6 to 2.7. That is below the usual Kp index threshold for Houston, so seeing the aurora is unlikely.