Where the Northern Lights could be visible tonight as aurora makes a return to the UK

The Northern Lights have returned to the UK tonight with the Met Office saying a number of areas have a “decent chance” of seeing it.

This year, the famed aurora has made a couple of appearances as far south as the UK, producing stunning pictures as a result.

The phenomena is chiefly influenced by geomagnetic storms, of which the Met Office said there was a “severe” one due to reach Earth overnight on 10 October.

This has seemingly already brought sightings of the Northern Lights in places, with people posting on social media to share their pictures.

The Met Office said that the viewings were likely in Scotland and Northern Ireland and possible in the north of England and the Midlands.

However, some shared their apparent sightings as far south as Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire and London.

Met Office spokesperson Stephen Dixon said: “The further north you are, the more likely you are to get good visibility.

“In terms of cloud cover overnight, there are relatively clear skies for much of the UK, so there is a decent chance of visibility.

“The exception to that is in parts of the west of Scotland, where there’s still some showers and some more patchy clouds around.”

He added that further residual viewings could be possible over the weekend – but this is likely to be confined to the likes of Scotland.

Rain and cloud could also obscure further viewings over the weekend, leaving Thursday night as the best opportunity to see the aurora borealis.

Near peak solar cycle

The auroras are most common over high polar latitudes but can sometimes spread south over parts of the UK.

The geomagnetic storms that chiefly influence them often originate from the sun, which works on a cycle of around 11 years with peak sunspot activity referred to as solar maximum.

Sunspots give the potential for Earth-directed releases of large bursts of energy, called coronal mass ejections (CME), which can lead to aurora visibility.

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Mr Dixon said: “We’re near the peak of that solar cycle so there have been more space weather events in recent months.

“International prediction centres, including the Met Office Space Weather Operations Centre, are expecting solar maximum to be later this year or early next year.”

It will still be possible to see the Northern Lights once we pass solar maximum but there will be a decline in such activity.

The aurora displays occur when charged particles collide with gases in the Earth’s atmosphere around the magnetic polls.

As they smash into one another, they emit light at various wavelengths, creating the stunning sights.