Northern Lights set to return on Sunday, May 12 as yellow alert issued

A weather expert has said that the UK could get a third night of northern lights as another geomagnetic storm erupted. The skies have been filled with eerie green and pink bands of light with it being visible, especially on Friday night, over the whole of the UK.

Channel 4 weather presenter Liam Dutton said on X “**LATEST NOAA SPACE PREDICTION** Further coronal mass ejections (CMEs) expected to arrive on Sunday. This means another strong or extreme geomagnetic storm is likely.

“Therefore, there may be another UK-wide showing of the aurora borealis on Sunday night - cloud permitting.” And he later added: “Geomagnetic activity will increase again today, however, as with last night, peak activity may not coincide with darkness.

“There’ll also be much more cloud around tonight, with clear spells limited. So, the chances of spotting the will be reduced somewhat.”

Scientist group AuroraWatch UK issued a yellow alert this morning saying the phenomenon could be visible with the eye in some areas and with camera equipment more widely. AuroraWatch UK is a free service offering alerts of when the aurora might be visible from the UK. It is run by scientists in the Space and Planetary Physics group at Lancaster University’s Department of Physics.

You can find it in your phone’s App store called AuroraWatch UK Aurora Alerts. If you download it, you will get a message on your phone when there is activity likely to lead to the northern lights. This weekend The Northern Lights, also known as aurora borealis, appeared after the Met Office confirmed a rare severe geomagnetic storm warning for this weekend – the first in nearly 20 years. The lights first appeared on Friday night with thousands of people catching a glimpse of the pretty skies - you can see some of those stunning photos here. But for those who missed it on Friday the phenomenon graced the skies again on Saturday giving stargazers another shot - and now it seems like it is coming back again.

According to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the earth was hit by a G5 geomagnetic storm on Thursday. A G5 rating is considered “extreme” and the strongest level of solar storm. The cause of this storm was a “large, complex” sunspot cluster, 17 times the diameter of Earth.

The last storm with a G5 rating hit Earth more than 20 years ago in October 2003 and caused power outages in Sweden. Every 11 years, the sun’s poles reverse, causing bursts of solar activity resulting in northern lights. Scientists predict the next solar maximum will occur at the end of 2024.