Not sure what our skies will be like tonight......days of cloudy weather here....
There's a new major event this AM, linked from Drudge to SPACEWEATHER.COM. It's an X-17 class flare, which they say is the biggest since 89 when there was an X20, which caused the Canadian power grid to fail. However, in the background they say there was an X20 in Jan 01. Now, that might be the event we both remembered, but I think what they're saying in the "since '89" bit is that this is the largest flare pointed towards earth and the Jan 01 event wasn't pointed to earth. I didn't find an event for October or November of 01 of any great magnitude, so I don't know what event you and I saw, but my memory of the timing is about the same as yours.
They are saying this event today could cause northern lights down to the lower latitudes tonight or tomorrow. We'll have to hope the clouds clear up here in Memphis.