Northern lights make appearance down south

The phenomenon known as the northern lights, or the aurora borealis, made a rare appearance as far south as Georgia Monday evening, according to WSAZ in Huntington, W.Va., and other news organizations.

A solar wind made the colorful sight visible much farther south than normal, WSAZ reports. There have been sightings reported from Kentucky, Georgia, Indiana, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Arkansas and other places, according to published reports.

The image of the northern lights in our photo is not from last night, incidentally, but from Nikiski, Alaska, back in early August. As soon as photos from this recent appearance become available, we'll post them here.

MSNBC.com provided an even more detailed explanation of the appearance, indicating that a strong compression in the magnetic field around the Earth allowed electrically charged particles from the solar wind to penetrate to within 22,000 miles of the Earth.

The northern lights usually appear in the Arctic regions.