Stunning aurora display overnight in Seattle, Puget Sound

SEATTLE — The Northern Lights were visible overnight Saturday in Seattle. “Probably the best aurora display we’ve seen in a decade here in Seattle,” tweeted the National Weather Service of Seattle. “Simply amazing.”

Officials with the NWS of Seattle advised there is a chance an aurora display will be visible again Sunday night. Minor geomagnetic storm activity continues. A moderate warning is in effect through the night, due to "persistent effects from a negative polarity coronal hole high speed stream." For updated aurora sighting conditions, click here.

Local photographers shared captures on KIRO 7's Facebook page. [See collected photos here.]

NWS Seattle <a href="https://twitter.com/NWSSeattle/status/729239509154422785" target="_blank">tweeted an incredible video of the display</a>, writing, "Watch Emerald City green auroral glow explode into curtains and pillars at NWS Seattle this morning."

The display could be seen from West Seattle, Seattle, Guemes Island, Bainbridge Island, Mukilteo, Tacoma, Monroe, Edmonds and Chimacum.

The aurora borealis -- the "Northern Lights" is a region of charged gases in the ionosphere, a region around 50 miles above the Earth's surface. The gases give off light from green to orange to red depending on the type of gas being excited by the charged solar particles.

Most importantly for us in the Pacific Northwest, the interaction of coronal mass ejections with the ionosphere as the pulse passes Earth can mean visible aurora displays much farther south than typical. [Read more about the Northern Lights from meteorologist Morgan Palmer.]

<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong>Below, see 5 selected captures from last night's stunning aurora show around Puget Sound:</strong></span>

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Cox Media Group