'Red alert' for Northern Lights issued for UK as Met Office shares best place to see them

A red alert status has been by Aurora experts, who have shared that the Northern Lights is 'likely' to be visible in UK skies again this evening (May 17). The Met Office has also announced where people might be able to catch them as the amazing phenomenon could return.

According to the Met Office, "there remains a slight chance of glancing Coronal Mass Ejection impacts overnight on Friday, May 17 into Saturday, May 18". A spokesperson said: "These may bring some limited enhancement to the aurora, with the slight potential of allowing for some visibility as far south as northern Scotland or similar latitudes."

Coronal mass ejections are are large explosions of plasma and magnetic field from the Sun's outermost atmosphere. The Met Office added it observed two strong flares, The Mirror has reported.

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It comes as experts at AuroraWatch UK - run by scientists in the Space and Planetary Physics group at Lancaster University’s Department of Physics - have issued a red alert, as of just after 7pm on May 17. AuroraWatch UK produces an hourly activity index to measure “geomagnetic activity” which we use to estimate the likelihood that aurora can be seen from the UK.

Their warning means “it is likely that aurora will be visible by eye and camera" from the UK.

Last weekend, stargazers across Greater Manchester were treated to a stunning solar phenomenon as it made an appearance in northern skies. Due to a severe geomagnetic storm, the Northern Lights were visible across the UK and other European countries in which you wouldn’t typically see the phenomenon.

Described as a “rare event”, it resulted in a solar storm warning