Northern Lights could be visible in Britain AGAIN this weekend after last week’s stunning display

Over the weekend, a barrage of electrically-charged particles from the sun colliding with the Earth’s magnetic field led to an even greater display than normal.

In the northern hemisphere, the Northern Lights – or aurora borealis – could be seen as far south as northern Italy – a far cry from their usual domain in the “aurora oval” of latitudes between 60 and 75 degrees.

While in the southern hemisphere, the Southern Lights – or aurora australis – were visible from parts of southern Australia; usually, those down under can only expect to see the phenomenon in Tasmania at best.

The aurorae could be seen right across the UK, with dazzling images and videos coming in from amateur stargazers all across the country.

And while it could take decades until Britons can look up and see waves of shimmering green and purple again – last week’s geomagnetic storms were the largest since 2003 – some lucky astronomers in Scotland should expect to witness them for the second weekend running.

The Met Office’s northern hemisphere aurora forecast says “there remains a slight chance of glancing Coronal Mass Ejection impacts overnight on May 17 into May 18”.

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Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) refer to large plasma releases from the surface of sun, which scream across space before interacting with Earth’s magnetic field.

Forecasters said: “These may bring some limited enhancement to the aurora, with the slight potential of allowing for some visibility as far south as northern Scotland or similar latitudes.”

This week has seen unprecedented numbers of alerts from AuroraWatch, an open-to-the-public aurora monitoring service.

The service, run by scientists in the Space and Planetary Physics group at Lancaster University’s Department of Physics, gives would-be spotters regular alerts and mapping telling them when and where to see the phenomenon.

But stargazers should be careful not to follow the example of those in Huddersfield last Saturday, when hundreds of vehicles were left stranded at a lookout point in Yorkshire last night as locals swarmed to see the lights.

Over 100 cars became trapped in a car park on Castle Hill in Huddersfield, sending drivers’ tempers flaring and even prompting a police response.

After the Met Office had predicted the lights would reappear on Saturday, hundreds made the trip up Castle Hill – but as the sun set, the aurora dimmed, leaving crowds disappointed.

When jilted locals returned to their vehicles to leave, the sheer amount of cars in attendance rendered a swift departure impossible, leaving drivers with near-hour-long delays and pushing police to turn up to help smooth the traffic flow.