Northern Lights set to be visible again from the UK soon - here's when
18 May 2024, 14:08
The Northern Lights are set to be visible again from the UK as soon as in June.
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The Northern Lights were visible across much of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, northern England and Wales earlier this month.
The rare occurrence took place because of a huge solar storm.
Krista Hammond, a space weather expert for the Met Office, said: "We had a quite enormous sunspot, about 15 times the size of the Earth, on the Earth-facing side of the sun.
"It was releasing a lot of solar flares and coronal mass ejections which are enormous eruptions of charged particles."
Read more: Pictured: Stunning Northern Lights visible across the country due to ‘huge solar storm’
The last time a storm of this magnitude took place was 21 years ago.
And because the sun is in the most active period of its cycle, people could get a chance to see the Northern Lights again at the start of June.
On May 10, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) issued a rare severe geomagnetic storm warning when a solar outburst reached Earth.
The effects are due to last through the weekend and possibly into next week.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the best aurora views may come from phone cameras, which are better at capturing light than the naked eye.
Take a picture of the sky and "there might be actually a nice little treat there for you", said Mike Bettwy, operations chief for the prediction centre.
