UPDATE: |Met Office issues UK Northern Lights ‘storm watch’ alert for tonight News

The aurora borealis could light up UK skies again on Tuesday night

The Met Office has warned that the Northern Lights could be spotted from the UK tonight as a geomagnetic storm alert has been issued.

The night sky phenomenon, also known as the aurora borealis, is caused by large explosions of activity from the Sun. This throws out huge amounts of charged particles into space that collide with gas molecules in the Earth’s atmosphere, emitting light at various wavelengths in spectacular colourful displays.

The arrival of a Coronal Mass Ejection is expected overnight on Tuesday, April 15, which is likely to bring aurora sightings to parts of the UK throughout the night.

As a result, the Met Office has issued a G3 yellow geomagnetic storm watch from 6pm on Tuesday to 6pm on Wednesday. G3 is classed as a strong storm and means aurora ‘may be seen in Scotland and Northern Ireland and as low as Mid-Wales and the Midlands.’

In their latest space weather forecast for the Northern Hemisphere, the Met Office says people in the northern parts of the UK are “likely” to spot beautiful phenomenon.

The forecast says: “The aurora is expected to be at normal background levels until the arrival of a Coronal Mass Ejection, most likely later on Tuesday UTC (15 Apr) and continuing into Wednesday (16 Apr).

“This is likely to bring the auroral oval to northern parts of the UK and similar geomagnetic latitudes, with a chance of some visibility towards the northern horizon for much of England.”

The most likely time to see the Northern Lights over the UK will be from 9pm until midnight, according to the Aurora Forecast.

But spotting the aurora borealis depends on cloud cover, only really being able to view it with a clear sky. The Met Office continued: “However, cloud cover over much of the UK will limit aurora viewings. The auroral oval will ease to background levels thereafter.”

Unfortunately, the latest Met Office weather maps show a large amount of cloud across the UK on Tuesday night – however there could be break in the cover during the evening, especially across northern England from around 9pm.

The weather phenomenon has been spotted more regularly from the UK over the past year. Stephen Dixon, spokesman for the Met Office, said: “People have noticed the Northern Lights more in the last year as the Sun is in its solar maximum phase of an 11-year cycle, meaning higher frequency of solar activity on the Sun.

“It can interact with the Earth’s atmosphere and bring us the Northern Lights as we know them in the UK. “