Northern lights in Texas tonight

The McDonald Observatory sits at 2070 m in the Davis Mountains of west Texas - one of the darkest skies in the continental USA. The International Dark Sky Park designation covers the surrounding region. At 30.7°N geographic the latitude is low, but the darkness is exceptional. Only the strongest storms reach this far south, and when they do the aurora shows as a glow above the northern horizon from the observatory plateau. The Star Party programme at McDonald runs nightly.

The most remote national park in the lower 48, with Bortle 1 sky over a vast desert. At 29°N geographic the latitude is low - aurora here takes a major-to-extreme storm and is a rare event that occurs only a handful of times per solar cycle. The Chisos Basin and the Rio Grande floodplain give outstanding sky photography conditions. For aurora, the northern horizon above the park plateau is the target direction.

The Texas Panhandle at 34-36°N geographic gives the state's best latitude for aurora, sitting marginally farther north than Dallas. Caprock Canyons near Quitaque gives Bortle 2 conditions with the canyon rims facing north across open plains. Even here it takes a major-to-extreme storm for aurora to show, low on the northern horizon. The flat plains give an unobstructed northern horizon.

The "Grand Canyon of Texas" sits in the southern Panhandle with canyon walls as a striking foreground for aurora photography. The plateau above the canyon faces north across open plains. Amarillo at 35.2°N geographic sits marginally farther north than Dallas, a slight edge but still well south of the aurora zone. Rural roads north of Amarillo toward Dumas give flat plains dark sky with any glow appearing low to the north.