Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Aberdeenshire and Highlands may be best place to see the Northern Lights this weekend

Northern Lights
Northern Lights

Aberdeenshire and the Highlands may be among the best places in Scotland to see an extraordinary display of the Northern Lights this weekend.

A solar storm on its way to Earth could mean they might be seen from the UK on Saturday night, forecasters have said.

And the Met Office believes the phenomenon, known as the aurora borealis, may be most visible in northern parts of Scotland.

Skies in Glasgow and Edinburgh are forecast to be cloudy on Saturday night, but there could be breaks long enough to reveal the lights.

Further north, in the Scottish Highlands, or east, in Dundee and Aberdeen, the sky is likely to be clearer.

The Northern Lights are created by disturbances in Earth’s magnetosphere caused by a flow of particles from the Sun, and are usually concentrated around the Earth’s magnetic poles.

The southward shift of the lights on Saturday is caused by an ejection of plasma, known as a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) from the Sun, which followed a solar flare on Wednesday.

Bonnie Diamond, meteorologist at the Met Office, said: “A Coronal Mass Ejection has happened and the effects of that are expected to arrive later tomorrow evening.

“This type of active geomagnetic storm means that there is the possibility of the aurora borealis, commonly known as the Northern Lights.

“Whether or not you will see the Northern Lights depends on where you are and what the weather is like. Scotland is where you’re most likely to see it.

“There’s a couple of showers on the west coast of Scotland on Saturday evening, and with those showers there will be a bit of cloud.

“However, the clearest skies are further east in Aberdeenshire, where there are plenty of clear skies. Further north, you’re pretty likely to see something.”

The Met Office’s Space account tweeted: “CME forecast to arrive late March 23 following C5 flare from sunspot AR2736. Active-minor geomagnetic storm periods possible with low risk of moderate storms.

“As a result, aurora may be visible in Scotland where cloud breaks. Latest forecast available”

NOAA, an American agency that monitors the atmosphere, said the Northern Lights could be visible as far south as Michigan and Wisconsin in the United States.