@snufflewort I’m sorry. On the upside they get a better view and more likely to get it all out when they open you up. Mine was a robotic assisted surgery.
THOUGHTS ON AURORA VISIBILITY TONIGHT, MAY 11:
Good evening. After last night's historic storm, the solar wind monitors are finally beginning to calm down this evening, the greatest indication of this being the total strength of the magnetic field, which has recently been around 6-8 nT (after reaching a peak of 74 nT yesterday) which is levels more characteristic of a stable solar wind regime. Despite that, the geomagnetic activity is still very much enhanced due in large part to extremely high solar wind speeds close to 1000 km/s (purple line) that have followed in the wake of the CME arrivals. The current planetary K-index is indicative of this at 7.33 (strong storm), but may continue to quiet down to minor to moderate geomagnetic storms this evening.
Thus, my hunch this evening is that aurora viewing may only be limited to the northern tier of the United States tonight, particularly in the northern fringes of the Northeast and Northwest, Montana, Idaho, the Dakotas, Minnesota, WIsconsin and Michigan.
Another round of CME impacts at Earth from storms that were initated in the last 24-36 hours from the Sun are on their way and may bring aurora viewing into a more favorable spot tomorrow and tomorrow night however, depending on timing of when these storms arrive.
A Severe Geomagnetic Storm Watch (G4, Kp=8) continues for May 12, a Strong Geomagnetic Storm Watch (G3, Kp=7) continues for May 13 and conditions are likely to calm down from there in the following days, pending any new activity of course.