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Northern Lights may be visible in the UK
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From the Met Office Blog.....
Northern Lights reach the UK
17 03 2015
Anyone in the Midlands, and further north, might have a chance of catching sight of the northern lights tonight.
Occasionally there are large explosions on the Sun and huge amounts of magnetically charged particles are thrown out into space, this is called a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME). If these particles travel towards Earth they interact with the Earth’s magnetic field and increase global geomagnetic activity. The increased activity releases energy into the atmosphere giving off light in the process, which we call the Northern Lights or the aurora borealis.
A CME left the sun on Sunday 15 March, arriving at Earth in the early hours of this morning (Tues). As the day has gone on the Earth’s magnetic field has become more disturbed with the disturbance reaching a level of G4 on the 0 to 5 NOAA geomagnetic space weather scales.
As a result of this activity the aurora is visible in those parts of the globe currently in darkness. As the UK becomes dark tonight there is an increased chance of the aurora being visible as far south as the Midlands. However due to the extensive cloud cover in Eastern areas, the best chance of clear skies is to the west of high ground. Check cloud cover in your area via our dedicated pages.
Areas such as the Northern tip of Northern Ireland, the Western Isles and parts of North Wales probably stand the best chance of seeing the aurora. See the British Geological Survey web pages on tips to see the aurora. |
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By *adybee77Woman
over a year ago
MAMOBA, miles and miles of bugger all (Aberdeenshire) |
Saw them on my way home from work... beautiful but not as vibrant as I have seen them here... we're spoiled up here in aberdeenshire that they show quite often. |
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By *londeCazWoman
over a year ago
Arse End of the Universe, Cumbria |
A mate of mine is an Aurora watcher...when I was going to Iceland I tagged him in a FB post doing a bit of a "ner ner ner ner ner, I'm gonna see the lights"...he responded with a gorgeous aurora pic he'd taken from Arse End pier...that was me told  |
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By *adybee77Woman
over a year ago
MAMOBA, miles and miles of bugger all (Aberdeenshire) |
"Your wasting your time in towns and cities anyhow most of the sky is obscured by up lighting.
Ideally You need dark and height and lots of luck "
It depends how bright the show is. I have stood on my doorstep here in the village and watched them. |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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What they actually mean is if you stand on top of a sky scraper on the Shetland Isles you may catch a little flicker...if you're lucky. Same as when they say the UK set for a blizzard! We get all excited down here thinking we are going to build snowmen and get a day off school,only to find it's only in the Highlands of Scotland. |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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only seen it here once..think it was 1996-97,i was working nights,listening to 5live and they reported they where getting phone calls from all over the country say people could see the northern lights...so i legged it outside and looked up...pink & green. streaks across the sky,was amazing,watched it for a good hour....
i'll never forget that... |
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thick blanket of cloud here so not much to see tonight.
It didn't say how long it will last for or is it just tonight? 