Here's how the northern lights looked in the California skies

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Northern California was treated to a rare display of the northern lights on March 23. This photo was taken on Montague Road just northeast of Yreka.

An aurora borealis, also known as the northern lights, is seen in the night sky on Feb. 26, near Washtucna, Wash.

Some people in northern California got the chance to experience a colorful atmospheric light show — otherwise known as the northern lights — in Thursday night's sky.

Those dancing waves, officially called aurora borealis in the Northern Hemisphere and aurora australis in the Southern Hemisphere, are the result of geomagnetic storms independent of the weather we experience on Earth. And they don't come around often.

"The sun releases large quantities of energy from its core in an explosive display that we call solar flares," said The Chronicle's meteorologist Gerry Diaz, who added that the flareups propel charged particles toward the Earth that are deflected by the planet's magnetic field.

As the particles slam into the Earth's atmosphere, they produce flashes of colorful light. When vast numbers of particles hit the atmosphere, they can appear to move or "dance" in the night sky.

This most recent solar eruption happened on March 20, said Bill Murtagh, program coordinator at the NOAA space weather prediction center. But it took several days to reach Earth. When it did on March 23, it was visible all around the world and even as far south as Alabama, according to the National Weather Service.

The colorful curtains of light were depicted in tweets from Lakeport (Lake County) Yreka, (Siskiyou County) and just before 10 p.m. above Mount Shasta on Girard Ridge.

In places with more overcast skies and brighter city skylines, the northern lights can be nearly impossible to see, Murtagh said. The light show peaked right after sunset up to about midnight, when it was at a geomagnetic storm level of 4, out of 5.

A rare occurrence in California-- the Northern Lights. This video was captured just after 10 p.m. above Mt. Shasta on Girard Ridge. pic.twitter.com/2pj5erDsOj

But if you weren't able to see them, don't despair, he says. The last major northern lights display of this level was most recently in 2021, and before then, in 2017.

"Stay tuned, because we are ramping up in the solar cycle and there will be more opportunities," he said.

Reach Annie Vainshtein: [email protected]