Northern lights can be visible as far south as Alabama, California

A strong solar burst Thursday evening is expected to enhance the Northern Lights, making colorful sky shows possibly visible as far away as Alabama and Northern California.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Weather Prediction Center said Thursday that plasma and other materials from the sun reached Earth at 11:17 a.m. ET, triggering what the agency called a “severe” geomagnetic storm.

These types of solar storms occur when eruptions from the sun, called coronal mass ejections, eject huge clouds of plasma into space. When aimed at Earth, the plumes of charged particles collide with the planet's magnetic field and interact with atoms and molecules in the upper atmosphere to create brilliant auroras.

When conditions are clear, skywatchers in Canada and many northern U.S. states – including Alaska, Washington State, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin – will likely have the best views of the northern lights. Highly active auroras could also be visible in parts of Northern California, Nevada, Oklahoma, Alabama, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York.

This week's solar storm is the most severe since May 10, when the Space Weather Prediction Center observed an even stronger and much rarer solar storm. Before the May event, NOAA had not issued a severe geomagnetic storm warning since 2005.