Northern lights display breaks through clouds overnight above Sonoma County

A large geomagnetic storm produced a vivid display of the aurora borealis, or northern lights, that was visible in northern Sonoma County overnight Sunday.

Cloudy conditions along the West Coast obscured the view for parts of Northern California, while reports of aurora sights stretched as far south in the state as San Diego. .

Elsewhere, the light display was observed across a number of U.S. states, from Arizona to the Dakotas and Virginia.

National Weather Service experts said the geomagnetic event, a solar storm, was the largest of its type in at least five years.