ping
A website I visit daily is: http://www.spaceweather.com
In their left hand column there is a group of indicative numbers for auroral activity. (Mid NY State is on the bad edge of “mid-latitudes” for this purpose, by the way. For others: The latitude that matters for this is not geographic latitude, but magnetic latitude - latitude with respect to the magnetic north pole.) SpaceWeather “news” includes other unusual atmospheric phenomena today they have a photo of Eyjafjallajokull volcano blowing a “smoke ring”, for example.
A service that they have is http://spaceweatherphone.com/ . Someone who signs up for this service will be given a phone call when auroras are active. I would NOT recommend paying the monthly fee ($5) during this period of very quiet sun, since there are so few auroras now - of course, your mileage may vary, especially if you wish to get phone calls for when satellites will be overhead. I considered it seriously about 5-6 years ago during the high activity.
I also look daily at the very simple but informative site:
Solar Terrestrial Activity Report
Finally, another good solar/ space weather sites - http://www.solarcycle24.com/