Northern lights over California: Cameras capture rare auroras

Northern California residents were treated to another rare display of the northern lights in the night sky on Thursday.

A strong ejection of solar material from the sun earlier this week caused a geomagnetic storm here on Earth.

These storms happen regularly, but the strength of this one caused the northern lights to appear over places where they don’t normally appear. The lights appeared around the world in May , and Northern California got another glimpse of them in August .

Below is a collection of photos of the lights as seen from Northern California on Thursday night. By the way, keep your eyes toward the sky throughout October and you may even see another rare sight, a comet visible to the naked eye .

Cameras from ALERT California | UC San Diego are normally used to capture footage of wildfires, but some in the far northern edge of the state captured the northern lights. This image is from a camera in Modoc County.

The following image was taken from a camera near Moon Lake, close to the border with Oregon.

The Nevada County Sheriff’s Office took the opportunity to get a picture of one of its patrol vehicles with the northern lights in the background, saying in a Facebook post, “What a beautiful night! Look up at the sky if you can.”

People in the Sacramento area were quick to share pictures of the northern lights on Reddit and other social media. A user in Carmichael got the following picture.

Matt W. in El Dorado Hills shared the following picture, saying that the sky looked pink, but the long exposure setting on their phone made the color really stand out.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 5 San Diego & KUSI News.