Yahoo News 'Absolute chaos' as hundreds flock to Dartmoor for Northern Lights - but see nothing
Crowds gathering on Dartmoor last night (May 11) resulted in "absolute chaos" on the roads. One witness said there were long queues of traffic that were slowed down by cars parked up on both sides of the road.
After Friday's (May 12) spectacular display of the Northern Lights, seen in Plymouth and across the South West, there was a second opportunity to see them again last night. Visibility was improved by an "extreme" geomagnetic storm heading towards Earth.
The lights are caused by particles colliding with gases in the Earth's atmosphere around the magnetic poles. This results in atoms glowing amazing shades of pink, purple, blue and green.
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Ahead of Friday's display, Dartmoor was expected to be one of the best places to catch a glimpse of the lights. It was deemed less likely that people would be able to see them last night but that didn't stop hundreds of people flocking to the beauty spot.
One person told PlymouthLive that this caused "havoc" on the roads. In a long video, hundreds of cars can be seen passing through the area between Princetown and Yelverton.
They said: "Dartmoor is in absolute chaos tonight as people flock to try and catch a glimpse of Aurora Borealis for the second night running. Aurora Borealis otherwise known as the Northern Lights has been predicted to give us a spectacular show yet again this evening.
"This is causing havoc as seen here on route between Princetown and Yelverton with cars parking, both sides of the road and even more on route.
"This was 11pm coming back from Princetown. Luckily only stuck for around 15 minutes. Didn't see anything."
