Aurora in America: All eyes on skies as solar storms bring northern lights to US

Intense solar storms are colouring the skies in the most beautiful shades of dreamy pink, immersive purple, and surreal green, putting up a rare breathtaking show of aurora borealis — also known as northern lights.

Shawn Dahl, Service Coordinator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Group, told reporters just hours before the phenomenon of northern lights started on Friday that America was about to witness something out of this world.

"We have a very rare event on our hand," Dahl said.

Moreover, the northern lights, also known as aurora borealis, which are generally only visible around the Arctic region and northern Canada, were seen as far south as Alabama and Northern California in the United States.  Sky-gazers from even deeper south areas spotted the colourful event. 

According to NOAA officials, if sky-gazers are having trouble seeing the northern lights with unaided eyes, the night sky settings of many cell phones will come in handy to catch the sight of the lights.

"Cell phones are much better than our eyes at capturing light," Brent Gordon, Chief of the Space Weather Services Branch for SWPC, said while talking to the media Friday.

"Just go out your back door and take a picture with the newer cellphone and you'd be amazed at what is what you see in that picture versus what you see with your eyes."