Northern Lights: Spectacular lights show to dazzle Wakefield and Dewsbury skies next week

The unexpected arrival of the aurora borealis earlier this year left the UK in awe as it lit up our skies, with NASA reporting it to be the the strongest sighting in 500 years.

Oer the past week, communties in Scotland and Northern England have aldo reported sightings following a red alert by the Met Office.

While sightings in Britain are typically infrequent, with the sun currently in the most active period of its 11-year cycle - the right conditions may lead them to being visiblefor more people across the district over the next week.

Whilst there is no specific date, those who want to get a glimpse of this phenomenon are encouraged to look up when the sky is dark and clear of any clouds.

Ideally, the lights will also be best viewed away from any light pollution, in remote areas, facing the northern horizon.

The Met Office said: “The northern lights occur as a consequence of solar activity and result from collisions of charged particles in the solar wind colliding with molecules in the Earth's upper atmosphere.

"The distance to the aurora belt, compounded by light pollution or twilight, means it can be difficult for the naked eye to see the phenomenon clearly.

"During more moderate to strong geomagnetic storms the Aurora borealis often moves southwards across southern Iceland or towards the Faeroes. These auroras can be faintly visible from the UK because they occur at high altitudes.”