Northern lights seen across the Maritimes Thursday night

First at Five: Lights Show Maritime skies and social media feeds were lit-up by the dazzling show of the Aurora Borealis.

The northern lights were visible in parts of Canada Thursday night, including in the Maritimes.

The display came after a severe geomagnetic storm watch was issued by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

CTV Atlantic meteorologist Kalin Mitchell says the geomagnetic storms often produce a more active aurora that can be seen more south than usual.

"From what I understand there was a coronal mass ejection from the sun on Oct. 8," said CTV Atlantic chief meteorologist Kalin Mitchell.

Mitchell says a coronal mass ejection, or CME, is basically an explosion of high energy particles from the sun toward the earth.

"It doesn't hit Earth all the time but what it does, it interacts with the magnetic field around earth and we get a more active display of the aurora. Makes it much more visible at latitudes further to the south than is typical, including us here in the Maritimes," Mitchell explained.

People across New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island witnessed the dazzling display and took pictures of the aurora.

Photos sent to CTV Atlantic show plenty of green, red, pink, purple and orange.

"Personally, it was the best northern lights show I've ever seen," said Tim Doucette, owner of the Deep Sky Eye Observatory in Tusket, N.S.

"This time we were able to see a lot of the red, which is only usually seen when there is high, high activity."

There were also reported sightings of the northern lights in the United Kingdom, California and Alabama.

The aurora was previously visible in the Maritimes earlier this year in August and in May.

Click here for a photo gallery of the northern lights from across the Maritimes Thursday night.