Met Office issues Northern Lights alert
As a solar storm strikes Earth, the Northern Lights will be visible over Scotland, Northern Ireland , and even as far south as parts of northern England. This comes as Earth is buffeted by a huge cloud of charged particles and magnetic fields ejected from the Sun known as a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME). The passage of this solar eruption has triggered a 'moderate', or G2, geomagnetic storm above Earth, leading to enhanced auroral activity.
Although you won't need any special equipment to see this celestial show, experts say that a digital or smartphone camera can help to capture colours hidden to the naked eye. However, with yellow thunderstorm warnings in force for Northern England and much of Scotland , spending too long outside is not advised unless the weather permits it in your area. According to the Met Office, strong geomagnetic storms have led to increased auroral activity throughout the day today, with activity expected to persist into the early hours of the morning.
With clear skies, the aurora may be visible as far south as northern English towns such as Manchester, Leeds, and Hull. Zoe Hutin, a Met Office spokesperson told MailOnline: 'Enhanced geomagnetic activity is expected tonight, which may provide an opportunity to view the aurora in Scotland, perhaps Northern Ireland, and parts of northern England. 'The greatest chance of seeing the aurora is in the far north of Scotland, specifically the Shetland Islands, and the northern Highlands, where some clear spells are likely around midnight.'
Dr Edward Bloomer, astronomer at the Royal Greenwich Observatory, told MailOnline: 'Aurorae are generally faint, and transitory. The best thing to do is to make your eyes as sensitive as possible, which means getting away from other sources of light. 'Your eyes take time to adjust, roughly half an hour for best sensitivity, so try to get somewhere dark, and avoid the temptation to check your phone.' However, if you have let your eyes adjust to the darkness and still can't see anything it might be worth trying to take a photo with your smartphone camera.
'Most cameras can control exposure time and sensitivity to collect more light and present it as a single image,' says Dr Bloomer. This means they can often reveal the colours of the aurora even when they aren't fully visible. Dr Bloomer adds: 'The camera lens and sensor don't work exactly the same way as the human eye, so their sensitivity and recreation of colour won't be exactly the same- though it might be close.
'You may notice, for example, that if you take pictures of the aurora the red components seem more vibrant than you were able to see with the naked eye.' If you are planning to go looking for the aurora tonight make sure to carefully check the weather forecast for your area. The Met Office has issued yellow storm warnings covering most of England and Scotland from midnight tonight, with amber warnings given for the southeast coast as far north as Norwich. Ms Hutin says: 'Given this forecast, spending extended periods outdoors overnight is not advised.'
Likewise, with cloud cover forecast over much of the UK, it is worth checking the weather to see if good views will be available. But, even if you do miss tonight's display there is no need to worry as more opportunities are on the way. Professor Malcolm Fairbairn, of King's College London, told MailOnline: 'Aurora take place when the Sun sends charged particles - electrons and protons - across the solar system , this is known as the solar wind.
'When these charged particles encounter the Earth, some of them travel down the poles and create light as they accelerate in the Earth's magnetic field and interact with our atmosphere , this light is what Aurora are.' At the moment the sun is extremely active because it is at a point of its 11-year cycle called the solar maximum. This occurs when the sun's north and south magnetic poles flip, causing disturbances in the solar surface that lead to more eruptions of solar material. This period also comes along with a larger number of dark sun spots, less dense regions of the solar corona which appear dark because they are cool. Charged particles are able to escape from these cool areas as a stream of material known as solar wind.
Professor Fairburn adds: 'A big gust of solar wind is arriving right now which may lead to Aurora, more visible the more North one is.' This gust is being generated by a vast hole in the sun's outer layers which has rotated to face Earth, unleashing a high-speed form of wind called a Coronal Hole High-Speed Stream. The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) predicts that this will trigger another moderate, G2, geomagnetic storm starting from Saturday afternoon. This should lead to some even stronger auroral activity that will be visible over the UK, particularly across northern Scotland.
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- North Wales Chronicle
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41 minutes ago
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This is a core of fast-moving air high in the atmosphere that stretches across the Atlantic and often steers storms towards the UK. Such conditions are unusual for the summer months, when warmer Atlantic sea temperatures typically weaken these temperature gradients and shift them farther north, closer to the polar regions. However, it is not uncommon for such storms to occur in August. Notable ones in the past five years include Storm Ellen, which extensively damaged electricity distribution infrastructure in Ireland and led the Irish meteorological service to produce and red and amber weather warning for the southern parts of Ireland. Previous storms in August cancelled the Boardmasters music festival in Cornwall in 2019 and closed two stages of Leeds festival in 2024. Floris is classified as a Shapiro-Keyser cyclone, a type distinguished by a warm core encircled by colder air on its north, west and south sides. This structure is visible in the way the storm's frontal system wraps around its centre, forming a characteristic comma-shape in the clouds around the cyclone centre. Storms of this kind are responsible for a significant number of the UK's most damaging wind events. These cyclones often feature sharp pressure gradients and strong low-level airflows, particularly an air stream known as the cold jet, or cold conveyor belt, which can produce severe surface winds. In some cases, they can also generate a sting jet, a narrow stream of air that descends rapidly from around 5km above the land surface, delivering intense, damaging gusts. Fortunately, satellite imagery suggests that Storm Floris is unlikely to have produced a sting jet. However, the cold jet alone may still drive wind speeds high enough to cause widespread disruption. These types of storms can also produce intense rainfall along their frontal boundaries, as seen with Storm Floris. Warmer summer temperatures allow the atmosphere to hold more moisture, increasing the potential for heavier downpours. In addition, the heat contributes to a more unstable atmosphere, encouraging strong convective ascents of air that can yield extremely heavy and localised rainfall. Floris in the future Research shows that climate change will influence the characteristics of storms like Floris, though not all aspects will be affected equally. Warmer temperatures are expected to make future storms wetter, as increased atmospheric moisture and convective activity enhance rainfall, particularly along frontal systems. However, projections of wind extremes remain more uncertain. Climate models generally suggest a modest intensification of winter storms over the UK and a decrease in the intensity of summer storms, implying that systems like Floris could become less common. These projections are largely tied to expected changes in Atlantic temperature gradients and the behaviour of the jet stream. That said, most long-term climate projections rely on relatively coarse-resolution models, which often fail to capture key features that drive storm intensification. These include the Gulf Stream (a warm Atlantic Ocean current) and drivers of extreme winds, including the cold jet and sting jet. A higher-resolution model, like that used in real-time forecasting for Storm Floris, predicts more intense winter windstorms in a warmer climate. Much of this intensification is linked to stronger cold jets and a potential increase in storms that generate sting jets. Many powerful summer and autumn storms in the UK originate from tropical cyclones such as hurricanes, as seen with Storm Ophelia in 2017. These systems are poorly represented in lower-resolution climate models, yet they contribute significantly to Europe's most extreme windstorms. While Storm Floris has no tropical origins, a variety of storms can affect northern Europe at this time of year. The complexity of assessing their risks remains an area of ongoing research.
