Met Office announces northern lights will make a rare return to the UK for a once-in-a-decade event

Among all the strange events this year, spotting the northern lights so clearly across the UK has to be one of the most surprising.

It’s safe to say many of us were amazed when the aurora lit up skies all over the country earlier this year. And for some lucky people, it seemed to keep happening.

Now, the Met Office has confirmed that the northern lights are set to return for a rare ‘once in a decade’ display.

Thanks to a flip in the Sun’s magnetic field, the aurora borealis is expected to be visible further south more frequently by 2025.

This magnetic shift happens roughly every 11 years and we’re currently nearing the end of what’s called the ‘solar maximum’.

In simple terms, this is a time when the number of sunspots peaks, causing solar flares that produce the spectacular northern lights.

Krista Hammond, Space Weather Manager at the Met Office Space Weather Operations Centre (MOSWOC), explained: “We’re in the solar maximum phase now, which means there are more sunspots and increased solar activity overall.

“Although we can’t predict specific solar events aimed at Earth, this phase does mean there’s a higher chance of auroras being visible in the UK in the coming months.

“The solar maximum phase could last for about a year, but we won’t know exactly when sunspot activity peaked until some time after it’s happened.”

This solar activity creates the chance for more ‘space weather’ events, like the strongest geomagnetic storm on Earth in two decades that occurred earlier this spring.

In October, a slightly weaker storm reached Earth and allowed the aurora to be seen as far south as central and southern England and Wales, the Met Office added.

Experts agree that the solar maximum is likely to hit its peak next year, which would mean the northern lights could be visible across an even larger area.

Once the solar maximum phase ends, activity on the Sun’s surface will gradually quieten down as it transitions into the solar minimum.

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