A Rare Aurora Borealis Event, 100 Years Ago Today

Most folks associate the Wyoming Room with genealogy, obituary records, city directories, and rare copies of western history books. But did you know we also have US Department of Agriculture Weather Bureau records for Sheridan from 1907-1948?

On this day in 1918, at 7:40pm in the northwestern sky, Sheridanites were treated to quite a show: a particularly extraordinary sighting of the Northern Lights. 

The Northern Lights occasionally appear in Sheridan, but March 1918 had been the first seen in quite some time, according to the weather station's notes. Add to that the Sheridan Enterprise,  in its article the following day, noted that the "occurrence was out of season" and  that the colors were strikingly vivid, especially red. Making the event especially unique was that red was rarely the prominent color in the Aurora. 

Weather Bureau records for March 7, 1918.
Click to enlarge.

Those lucky enough to bear witness first saw a red sheet...extending upward" shifting to "a shaft of white...breaching a higher altitude" with the "depth of color varying from minute to minute." The northwestern display shifted east where "at times, half the NE sky was red." At times, the lights "resembled a reflection of cloud sheets from some huge fire...with streamers shooting upward halfway to the girth...across the whole northern sky." People up at Dome Lake were able to see the display until midnight.

Based on the weather station's description, this is probably
close to the Northern Lights Sheridanites saw 100 years ago.
Stock image from RobertHarding.com. Click to enlarge.