Northern Lights Dazzle Colorado Watchers; More To Come

DENVER -- The Aurora Borealis, or northern lights, were clearly visible throughout the northern sky Sunday night and early Monday morning in Colorado and points north.

The spectacular light show might be repeated Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights.

7NEWS received numerous reports of the northern lights displays from residents across Colorado, who said they were amazed at the spectacle and dancing colors in the dark sky. The lights persisted until early Monday morning, according to one viewer who wrote in from Holyoke, Colo.

"We have seen blues and greens and reds and at one point it seemed to drift right over the top of us. My kids are in such awe," wrote another viewer from Weld County.

At its peak last night, the storm produced the light display as far south as Oklahoma and California in the United States

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Environmental Center in Boulder, Colo., more displays might be visible Monday and Tuesday nights.

Another major solar flare occurred Monday morning and the Space Terrestrial Dispatch Web site predicted the next potentially large disturbance will not arrive until the Tuesday or Wednesday nights, giving residents another shot at seeing the display.

The lights are caused when solar flares pulse energy into space, a solar wind of gases is pulled into the atmosphere at the earth’s poles by the planet’s magnetic field. Widely dispersed oxygen atoms become ionized and in this excited state, illuminate the gases. The different colors are caused by different compositions of gases, according to experts.