Northern Lights: Met Office reveals final chance to see flurry tonight

Where you can see the northern lights tonight, as Met Office confirms last chance

The last chance to see the current flurry of northern lights could come tonight.

In recent days, increased activity at the Sun meant that the northern lights or aurora borealis were as visible as far down the country as southern England.

The spectacle is particularly notable in that it requires no special equipment or knowledge to see – only relative darkness and a patience to wait for them to appear in the sky.

However, the solar weather forecast shows that activity is easing, and that any activity is likely to subside.

That means Tuesday is probably the last chance to see any of the northern lights – and it will not be visible right across the country in the way that it has been in recent days.

However, the cycle of the Sun means that we are entering into a particularly busy phase. As such, the coming years could see even more activity from the northern lights, visible in even more places.

The northern lights happen when the Sun’s activity pushes solar wind towards Earth, which then collides with our atmosphere. As it does, it lights up particles in the sky that can make for a swirling, bright natural light show.

This time around, that solar activity is expected to ease over Tuesday, though it might continue into the early hours of Wednesday morning, the Met Office warned. That means there should be some chance to see the spectacle – though the reduced activity means that it will not come as far south as it has over recent nights.

The aurora could be visible in the “far north of Scotland or similar latitudes, but not as far south or as intense on the previous nights”, it said.

It will then fade to “background levels”, where the northern lights are only visible less often and at very high latitudes.

After that time, the Sun is also expected to return to its normal activity, with the geomagnetic storms that have come in recent days reducing.

The Met Office’s cloud forecast also shows heavy cover over much of the country in the coming days, meaning that any activity might be covered up anyway.