PHOTOS: Northern lights dazzle nighttime skies of northwest Ohio

TOLEDO, Ohio — A geomagnetic storm Tuesday night has lit up nighttime skies across the U.S., and right here in northwest Ohio, with beautiful displays of the northern lights.

The alert comes after a coronal mass ejection, an eruption of solar material and magnetic fields from the Sun’s surface, was set to hit Earth late Tuesday into Wednesday. Coronal mass ejections, known as CMEs, usually generate spectacular displays of aurora borealis in northern U.S. states.

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The best views of the lights, like the ones below, typically come from rural areas free of city lights.

Southeast Michigan didn’t miss out on the lights show, either.

You can, of course, still see the aurora borealis from an urban setting like Toledo. WTOL 11 was able to capture this photo from downtown with our Fifth Third Bank camera.