It’s been quite the year for the Northern Lights, with millions of people across various continents gazing up in to the night sky to spot the aurora borealis from the comfort of their own home.
Usually an amazing natural phenomenon that is reserved for people who visit Scandinavia or Iceland, it has been brought to ours homes on a number of occasions in 2024 due to a once in 11 year cycle concerning the Sun.
The spectacle returned last Thursday night (10 October), with social media full of people capturing the green, purple and red glow in the night sky from their back gardens.
Last week’s showing saw the lights visible as far south as Kent, with Brits absolutely over moon at what they saw (and the money they saved on that excursion to northern Sweden).
And the good news is that if you saw it, your chances of seeing it again are pretty high. If you missed it, there’s some big chances going forward to finally catch a glimpse.
The aurora last week in Buckinghamshire (Jim Dyson/Getty Images)
Will the Northern Lights be visible from the UK again in 2024?
There’s a strong chance that people in the UK will be able to see the Northern Lights again before the end of 2024.
That’s because we’re still in something called the ‘solar maximum’; a period of time that comes around every 11 years or so.
Concerning the Sun, it is a period of time in which the star is at its most volatile, sending out huge solar flares in to space. When the conditions and timings line up, many of these flares can be flung towards Earth itself.
As it stands the current cycle, which is known as Solar Cycle 25 in the scientific community, began in December 2019 and is still in the maximum phase, according to the experts.
Lisa Upton, co-chair of the Solar Cycle 25 Prediction Panel and lead scientist at Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas, said this week: “Currently, we’re about two years into the maximum period, so we’re anticipating another year or so of maximum phase before we really enter the declining phase, which will lead us back to solar minimum.”
The Northern Lights visible in Whitley Bay, near Newcastle, earlier this year (Ian Forsyth/Getty Images)
How the Northern Lights happen
Get your science hat on, it’s time for a very basic lesson in astronomy.
Auroras appear in the night sky after the Sun sends out large solar flares in to the void of space. These flares are full of charged particles called electrons and protons.
Earth has a magnetic field. We can’t see it but it reacts with the charge that these particles have when they reach out the planet.
It’s a pretty extreme incident, with the magnetic field being dragged in all directions by the power of the solar flares. And it is in these moments, mixing with gases in our atmosphere, that the bright colours are sprung across the night sky. Some like to say they ‘dance’ across the sky given how graceless the Northern Lights can look.
The Northern Lights usually happen around the north pole in a region called the Auroral Oval. It’s fluid, with the best location to see the aurora often changing. But as a general rule, your chances of seeing it are better the further north you are.
A purple green glow is what many see in the sky (Ian Forsyth/Getty Images)
Best places in the UK to see the Northern Lights
Whether you can see the Northern Lights or not depends on where you are as well as the size of the solar flares being flung towards our planet.
The National Trust recommends heading to one of its many parks.
Given the lack of artificial light in them, it’s worth a shot. Parks include the Brecon Beacons in South Wales; Derwentwater in Cumbria; and Mam Tor in the Peak District.
Cairngorms National Park in Scotland is also a stunning location. And if you’re really feeling adventurous, you could head to the Outer Hebrides.
It’s no shock, given that the northern parts of the UK are always going to get a better viewing than somewhere down south.
We get that not everyone can get to Scotland, though, so anywhere with low artificial light is your best shout. North York Moors National Park and South Downs National Park are two more hot spots.