The UK was treated to an incredible light display in the sky last night.
The Northern Lights – also known as aurora borealis – could be seen as far south as Cornwall. The spectacular phenomenon is rarely seen further south than Scotland.
The Met Office says the northern lights occur “as a consequence of solar activity” and “result from collisions of charged particles in the solar wind colliding with molecules in the Earth’s upper atmosphere”.
The national weather forecaster says the lights appear as “large areas of colour including pale green, pink, shades of red, yellow, blue and violet in the direction due north”.
“During a weak aurora, the colours are very faint and spread out whereas an intense aurora features greater numbers of and brighter colours which can be seen higher in the sky with a distinct arc.
“This incredible occurrence can be occasionally seen in the night sky over Britain,” added the Met Office. And last night was one of those rare nights.
On X, the social media platform previously known as Twitter, a photographer from Penzance called Nick said: “Fantastic display of the northern lights here in Cornwall tonight.”
And self-proclaimed “weather enthusiast” from the Midlands tweeted: “Absolutely incredible, northern lights from Birmingham this evening.”
Even more spectacular images were shared by photographers in Ireland and Scotland. A ‘weather and tech freak’ based in Dublin posted an incredible photo of the neon pink display in Ireland. They described it as “A night I won’t be forgetting any time soon.”
Lancaster University-based AuroraWatch UK missed a ‘red alert’, suggesting it was likely that the aurora would be visible by eye and camera from anywhere in the UK, shortly after 2am this morning.
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This notice was published: 2023-09-13 03:23:00