The Aurora Borealis was spotted in a large swath of states, including Idaho, Iowa, Missouri, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and Washington state. Northern lights were visible as far south as parts of Florida and Alabama, a relatively rare occurrence that highlights the severity of this week's storms.

Nature offers many dazzling displays, from jagged flashes of lightning to radiant sunsets. But perhaps one of the most elusive natural phenomena is the shimmering waves of green, pink, and red dancing across the night sky,

After displays of auroras lit up the sky on Tuesday, another Northern Light array is expected to bring a gleaming light show to the northern part of the U.S. Wednesday.

VALLEY FALLS, Kansas (AP) — Charlie Riedel has been a staff photographer for The Associated Press based in Kansas City for 25 years. He has covered Olympics, Super Bowls and the Masters among many sporting events in his career. He also has covered presidential elections, weather disasters, the Gulf oil spill and protests.

The northern lights were visible Tuesday night across the Chicago area, illuminating the sky with brightly colorful displays due to severe solar storms.

Increased solar activity causes auroras that dance around Earth’s poles, known as the northern lights, or aurora borealis, and southern lights, or aurora australis. When the energized particles from coronal mass ejections reach Earth’s magnetic field, they interact with gases in the atmosphere to create different colored lights in the sky.

Skies over North America erupted this week with shimmering colors: Shades of pink, purple and green swayed across the skies in Northern as well as some Southern states. It followed two similarly prolific auroral displays in North America in October and May of 2024.

Thea Langeland, Adventure Designer at Norrøna Adventure, makes it her mission to maximize travelers’ odds of seeing the aurora.