Northern lights visible in UK tonight: When and where you can see aurora borealis after yesterday’s spectacular display
Here’s when you might be able to see the northern lights in UK skies tonight as “severe space weather conditions” means they could also be visible in the south of the country.
It’s not a phenomenon you get to see every day in the UK but the northern lights should be visible in parts of the country on Wednesday night (November 12) after a spectacular display yesterday. The aurora borealis - as it’s otherwise known - only usually appears in the far north regions, but due to more “severe space weather conditions”, tonight they may also be visible further south.
If you are not familiar with the phenomenon, the northern lights appear as large areas of colour in the sky, including pale green, pink, red, yellow, blue and violet. The intensity of the colours depends on the severity of the activity out in space.
Explaining the reason for the nighttime light show, the Met Office says it is caused by solar activity resulting from “collisions of charged particles in the solar wind colliding with molecules in the Earth's upper atmosphere.” When the magnetic polarity of the solar wind opposes the Earth's magnetic field, the two magnetic fields combine which allows these energetic particles to flow into the Earth's magnetic north and south poles.
While auroras usually occur in a ring centred on the magnetic pole, known as the annulus, Coronal Mass Ejections from the Sun can cause the annulus to expand, the national weather forecaster explains. This can bring the aurora to lower latitudes meaning it can be seen in the UK.
Met Office northern lights prediction
The Met Office confirmed the northern lights should be visible in the UK tonight thanks to three coronal mass ejections. Their aurora forecast said: “Three coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are expected to arrive at Earth, two on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning and another on Wednesday night into Thursday morning.
“The aurora will be enhanced into Wednesday morning with enhancement persisting perhaps through to Thursday morning. Visible aurora expected across parts of northern UK and similar geomagnetic latitudes, with a chance of sightings further south across England and Wales, though cloud cover is expected to inhibit ideal viewing conditions for many parts.”
How to see the northern lights
The northern lights are best witnessed in Scotland, North England, North Wales and Northern Ireland, however, due to the CMEs, they may be visible in other parts of the country tonight as well.
Ideal conditions for viewing the aurora is a dark, cloudless sky, so while you can’t do anything about the weather, you stand the best chance of seeing the lights away from any light pollution. Remote locations will provide the least amount of light and, of course, make sure you are facing the northern horizon when the light is coming from - the Met Office say north facing coasts “produce some of the best viewing locations”.
The northern lights are most active during the Equinox and Solstice in March and April and again in September and October. Incredibly, the lights generally extend from 50 miles to as high as 400 miles above the Earth's surface.