Met Office announces the best places in the UK to see the Northern Lights tonight – with a red visibility alert from Aurora watch.

The Met Office is indicating where in the United Kingdom you can observe the Northern Lights, as a red visibility warning has been issued for this natural phenomenon.

The forecaster confirmed the stunning aurora borealis may be visible in parts of the country this evening and later tonight. 

They anticipate that quick solar winds combined with any cloud breaks will give some lucky Brits a view of the natural phenomenon. 

However, the night sky might not be glistening a myriad of colours for everybody, with the Northern Lights best visible from parts of Scotland. 

Ellie Glaisyer, a Meteorologist at the Met Office, informed MailOnline: ‘The arrival of the swift solar winds might enable the aurora to be seen in northern Scotland tonight.’

‘The best of any cloud breaks for Scotland will be in the south and west, with scattered showers bringing variable cloud further north and east.’ 

It comes as Aurora Watch UK, which monitors geomagnetic activity, issued a red alert for the aurora borealis tonight between 7pm and 8pm. 

The red alert means the aurora borealis could likely be visible to both the eye and camera across the UK. 

Pictured, the aurora borealis in Dundee, Scotland between 12:00-12.30am on February 28, 2025

The Aurora Borealis lighting up the night sky over Pitstone Windmill in Buckinghamshire on October 10, 2024

The Met Office has specified that the optimal viewing of the Northern Lights is from certain areas in Scotland (Pictured: The Northern Lights in Dundee, Scotland between 12:00-12:30 AM on February 28, 2025)

Aurora Watch UK monitors the likelihood of spotting the swirling colours in the night sky by using data from SAMNET and AuroraWatchNet.

They also released an amber alert for the Northern Lights earlier this evening from between 5pm and 6pm. 

Similarly to a red alert, amber means aurora will be visible to the eye but only in parts of Northern Ireland, Scotland and Northern England. 

The aurora – seen both near the northern and southern poles – is sparked by activity on the surface of the Sun. 

When there are solar storms on the Sun massive clouds of electrically charged particles travel and clash with the Earth. 

As they divert some are caught by our planet’s magnetic field causing them to speed towards the north or south poles. 

‘These particles then slam into atoms and molecules in the Earth’s atmosphere and essentially heat them up,’ explains Royal Observatory astronomer Tom Kerss told Royal Museums Greenwich. 

‘We call this physical process “excitation”, but it’s very much like heating a gas and making it glow.’ 

Although the sky may be bright for some Brits across the country tonight, others are going to caught in an icy grip tomorrow.  

The displays light up when electrically charged particles from the sun enter Earth’s atmosphere (Pictured in February at Hopeman East Beach Moray, Scotland)

These collisions emit light in many amazing colours, although pale green and pink are common (Pictured: Aurora on February 27, at Hopeman East Beach Moray, Scotland)

A yellow weather warning was issued in parts of England in areas including Yorkshire, Lancashire, Northumberland and Derbyshire.

The affected regions are set to be hit by icy conditions on Thursday between 3am and 9am on Thursday.

They are expected to see temperatures plummet close to zero, with icy roads increasing the chance of accidents especially over the Pennines and the Peak District.

Tom Morgan, a meteorologist at the Met Office, said: ‘We have an Arctic air mass in place across the UK at the moment, compared to a much milder continental air mass last weekend.

‘Last weekend, we had very mild southerly winds coming up from North Africa and Spain bringing those temperatures into the teens.

‘On Monday, we saw cold fronts sink southwards across the UK, and that introduced colder, Arctic air.

‘Ice won’t necessarily just be in northern England where the ice warning is.

‘We could see some patchy frost and ice pretty much anywhere where we see showers today.’

He added: ‘This is not unusual, we do see snow and frost in March quite often.

‘If anything, it was last weekend that was fairly unusual to see temperatures as high as 18c or 19C.

‘With climate change, we can expect higher temperatures earlier in the year becoming a bit more likely and shorter winters with less extreme, less cold conditions.’

WHAT ARE AURORAS AND WHAT TRIGGERS THE STUNNING NATURAL DISPLAYS?

The Northern and Southern Lights are natural light spectacles triggered in our atmosphere that are also known as the ‘Auroras’.

There are two types of Aurora – Aurora Borealis, which means ‘dawn of the north’, and Aurora Australis, ‘dawn of the south.’

The displays light up when electrically charged particles from the sun enter the Earth’s atmosphere. 

There are two types of Aurora – Aurora Borealis (file photo), which means ‘dawn of the north’, and Aurora Australis, ‘dawn of the south.’ The displays light up when electrically charged particles from the sun enter the Earth’s atmosphere

Usually the particles, sometimes referred to as a solar storm, are deflected by Earth’s magnetic field.

But during stronger storms they enter the atmosphere and collide with gas particles, including hydrogen and helium.

These collisions emit light. Auroral displays appear in many colours although pale green and pink are common.