A huge solar storm is pounding the Earth’s geomagnetic field, creating brilliant green auroras just in time for St. Patrick’s Day.

A blast of energy from a coronal mass ejection (CME) from the sun has come racing toward our atmosphere, striking it and exciting the molecules of gas in the air, which causes the phenomenon that we know as the Northern Lights, according to Smithsonian.com.

NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center states that the storm started slowly at the North Pole in the early hours of March 17, but increased in intensity to a G4-class magnetic event (out of five), causing intense auroras that could be seen as far as south as Illinois, according to the report.

Along with green lights, brilliant reds and purples filled the atmosphere in locations that could see the event.

NOAA forecasters expect the solar storm to stick around for hours before tapering off, but the storm should remain at G1 levels into this morning.

It wasn’t just the Northern Hemisphere that got a light show; locations in Antarctica and New Zealand also reported seeing red and pink lights.

Auroras are natural light displays that are usually seen in the high latitude regions, or the areas closest to the poles. They are caused by charged electrons and protons that enter the atmosphere, resulting in ionisation and the resulting optical emissions.

In the Northern Hemisphere, they are known as the aurora borealis. In the Southern Hemisphere, they are referred to as the aurora australis.

Two create this latest solar storm, which caught scientists a little off-guard, the NOAA thinks that two CMEs may have combined, which could explain the intense strength of the storm.

Coronal mass ejections involve magnetic clouds that are blasted from the sun. Although they create these spectacular light shows, they can have some pretty unpleasant effects on the Earth, knocking out the electricity grid and interfering with radio transmissions and GPS signals — although there was no indications that this happened with this storm, according to NOAA.