Photos show rare northern lights over California

Northern California was treated to another rare display of the northern lights on Sunday night after strong solar activity caused these dazzling celestial arrays to appear in lower latitudes around the world.

Cameras from ALERT California | UC San Diego captured the auroras as they appeared over the far northern reaches of the state, including Modoc County, which is on the northeastern edge of the state.

Users of the r/northernlights channel on Reddit shared their pictures taken around the world, with images reportedly taken in the United States from other states where they are not so common, such as Kentucky.

A user shared a timelapse video reportedly taken from the community of Rescue, which is about 35 miles northeast of Sacramento.

The northern lights are caused by coronal mass ejections from the sun, which are bursts of high-energy plasma that, when directed toward the Earth, can create the light shows in the sky, but can also disrupt GPS systems and cause outages .

The solar activity is measured using a rating of G1 to G5, with Sunday’s activity rated a G4. In May of 2024, rare G5 activity caused the auroras to appear in lower latitudes across the world.

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