Northern Lights Reach Southern England After G3 Solar Storm

The aurora borealis, or northern lights, was visible across much of the United Kingdom on the nights of October 10 and 11, 2026, after a coronal mass ejection (CME) struck Earth's magnetic field and triggered a strong geomagnetic storm.

What happened

The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) said the geomagnetic field reached G3, the 'strong' category on its five-step storm scale, beginning at 17:58 UTC on October 10 and persisting at or near that level through the end of that day. SWPC said the storm followed a CME that left the Sun on October 8.

Sky at Night Magazine reported that aurora chances had already been raised earlier in the week, after a CME erupted from the Sun on October 6, prompting forecasters to flag a G2 (moderate) storm category before the stronger G3 event followed on October 10.

Where the lights were seen

In the UK, sightings were reported from Scotland down through northern England and the Midlands and, more unusually, the south coast, with observers in Devon, Hampshire, Kent and Leeds photographing the display on Friday and Saturday evenings, October 10 and 11, according to time.news and Press News Agency.

The UK Met Office said the event was driven by 'two glancing coronal mass ejections followed by a coronal hole high speed stream' that brought a daily chance of enhancing the auroral oval. The Met Office noted that auroras directly overhead in the UK normally require severe storm levels of Kp8–9 or higher, while the moderate Kp6–7 activity recorded during this event typically makes the lights only faintly visible, and usually from higher ground away from light pollution.

Why it was visible so far south

Auroras form when charged particles carried by the solar wind are funneled toward Earth's magnetic poles, where they collide with oxygen and nitrogen in the upper atmosphere, producing green and red light from oxygen and blue-purple hues from nitrogen, according to the Met Office's explanation of the process. A stronger geomagnetic storm pushes the auroral oval — the ring-shaped zone where the lights are typically visible — further from the poles, which is why a G3 storm allowed sightings as far south as England's south coast.

What is not yet known

SWPC's October 10 notice did not include a detailed assessment of effects on power grids, HF radio or satellite navigation, which the agency's storm-scale categories can include at G3 level; the alert stated that real-time observation data was still updating at the time it was issued. The Met Office said, as reported by time.news and Press News Agency, that auroras might remain visible at times over the following nights across Scotland and similar latitudes, with a reduced chance further south, though precise visibility depends on continued solar activity and local cloud cover, which cannot be forecast with certainty more than a few days ahead.