Tri-City residents catch Northern Lights — but they had to drive to Adams County

The Northern Lights were a bust in the Tri-Cities late Sunday night and early Monday morning.

But two residents who drove north of the Tri-Cities to watch for them in Adams County caught photos with the glowing gold and purple light of the aurora borealis.

Dallas Phillips of Richland drove to north of Lind after reviewing the National Weather Service predictions for when and where the Northern Lights might be visible.

He only saw a cloudy haze on the horizon, but a photo taken with a 25-second exposure early Monday morning showed the clouds were the aurora borealis.

Collin Schuler of Kennewick was not too far away — in Packard north of Ritzville — when he also got a photo of the Northern Lights about 11:40 p.m. Sunday.

The weather service had issued a watch for moderate geomagnetic storm conditions late Sunday and early Monday because of a coronal mass ejection, a large cloud of plasma and magnetic field that erupted form the sun and was expected to move past the Earth.

The Tri-Cities was at the southern edge of the area in Washington state where people were most likely to see the aurora borealis, the weather service said.

This story was originally published July 17, 2017 at 3:41 PM with the headline "Tri-City residents catch Northern Lights — but they had to drive to Adams County."