Northern Lights in the UK: Will there be Aurora Borealis tonight? Is it visible in UK?

The majestic natural sight can be seen in the skies above Britain, with colourful green, pink and purple.

The , as seen in the Northern Hemisphere, is a rare occurrence caused by the dance of electrically charged particles in the atmosphere.

The interplay of plasma released above the magnetic north pole leads to various hues of green, blue, yellow, red and violet to paint the sky.

The most common aurora colour is green, which occurs when oxygen molecules fact with the articles. The aurora turns blue or purple when reacting with nitrogen.

Will the Northern Lights be visible in the UK tonight?

Unfortunately, the Aurora Borealis outlook is not looking good for the UK.

According to website AuroraWatch, there is no significant activity reported This means Aurora is unlikely to be visible by eye or camera from anywhere in the UK.

Tracking website Aurora Service also reports low activity levels of just 0.67Kp.

What is the Kp index?

This is a scale of 0 to 9 known as the planetary index, which you can see in this map above.

Using this scale, it is easy to determine what kp number you need to have a chance of seeing auroras where you are.

So, for example, northern England is at around 6Kp while London is around 7Kp.