Shades of pink, purple and green marked the North American sky suddenly like a dazzling aurora borealis.
Weather officials said the aurora borealis seen from California to New York, South to Arizona and North to Canada was "pretty unusual".
The event was classified as a "strong geomagnetic storm" and received the second strongest rating of G4. The strongest would be G5. A milder storm is expected this weekend.
Bill Murtagh, program coordinator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Weather and Prediction Center, explained that last night's aurora borealis was caused by multiple solar flares that released high-energy particles that hit Earth's atmosphere, like a great magnet thrown out of the sun.
He stated, "We see these high energy particles will collude with the Earth's upper atmosphere which will create the Northern Lights when these clouds of particles and magnetic fields from the sun hit the Earth's magnetic fields. Such occurances takes place about 50 times in each solar cycle, which is 11 years but it was the most stern geomagnetic storm in nearly six years."
Mr Murtagh said, "We are now approaching the point in the solar cycle where there is more sun, the period defined as solar maximum. During solar minimum, when solar activity is low, milder geomagnetic storms are more common and are usually seen in northern states like New England and the Canadian border. But advanced solar storms are on the rise. The next coming years is going to witness the most solar activity."
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