Northern Lights Make Rare Appearance Over Oklahoma

NewsOn6.com

TULSA, Oklahoma -- People across northeastern Oklahoma were treated to a rare and amazing sight Monday evening.

The northern lights, also known as the aurora borealis, lit up the sky around 8:30 p.m. and lasted for 10-15 minutes.

News On 6 viewers snapped several pictures of the event and commented on our Facebook page.

"We saw it in Oilton!! So cool!!" Kelly Jones Lasater posted.

"I saw it. Didn't exactly know what it was. Thought that was only in Alaska!" Amber Otis posted.

According to NASA, auroras form when the sun sends a "solar wind" of charged particles into Earth's magnetic field, accelerating electrically charged particles trapped within.

The high-speed particles then crash into Earth's upper atmosphere over the polar regions, causing the atmosphere to emit a multicolored glow.

According to spaceweather.com, a coronal mass ejection from the sun hit Earth's magnetic field yesterday afternoon Oklahoma time. 

As the name suggests, the northern lights are usually only visible across the top of the northern hemisphere.  But yesterday's coronal mass ejection was so powerful, it made the northern lights visible in half of the lower 48 states, including Oklahoma, Arkansas and even Alabama.

You can sign up for free email alerts about astronomical events from spaceweather.com.  You can also sign up for text alerts there, but those cost money.  News On 6 is not affiliated with spaceweather.com.