Will The Northern Lights Illuminate UK Skies This Week? Here's Everything We Know

On Halloween night this year, some parts of the UK got an extra treat as the aurora borealis became visible in the North.

And luckily, the Met Office’s space weather section reports there’s a “slight” chance of a Northern Lights encore this week too. 

Here’s where, when, and how you’re most likely to catch the sights:

Will the Northern Lights be visible in the UK this week? 

To understand how likely we are to see the aurora, it helps to know why the stunning lights become visible to begin with. 

Northern Lights happen after solar storms on the Sun release electrically charged particles.

Some of these reach Earth, and a couple stay in our magnetic field – where they accelerate towards the North and South Poles. This is where the charged particles create light storms. 

Royal Observatory astronomer Tom Kerss told the Royal Museum Greenwich: “We call this physical process ‘excitation’, but it’s very much like heating a gas and making it glow”.

The more intensely a space storm rages, the brighter the Northern Lights – and the likelier we are to see them as far south as the UK.

And, per the Met Office, there is a “Slight chance of [a] minor geomagnetic storm G1 on 05 and 06 November” – or Thursday and Friday of this week. 

This is due to “changes on the current population of sunspot regions and the possible staged return of past active regions over the eastern solar horizon” (sunspots are cooler, darker spots that store magnetic energy and can create solar flares).

On Thursday, last Sunday’s coronal mass ejection (CME), or release of solar material, might also “glance” Earth. Thursday seems the most likely day for a repeat show.

Still, even this CME contact is “most likely a miss”.

Where will the Northern Lights be visible in the UK? 

If the lights do indeed appear on Thursday, the further north you are, the better. 

The Met Office has previously shared that people in Scotland, northern England, North Wales, and Northern Ireland tend to get the best views, therefore.

The aurora only shows up further south in very strong storms.

To boost your odds of catching them, pick a clear, dark sky with little light pollution (north-facing coasts and rural areas are your best bets).