Northern lights likely to return tonight after stunning display captured over Black Country

A stunning display illuminated the skies of Britain and Ireland on Sunday with a dazzling show of shimmering greens, purples and pinks, with one ready sending in photos of the display above Kingswinford.

The Met Office said the lights may also be visible on Monday evening, although cloudy skies may limit those who get a second chance to witness it.

Joanna Noble, a photographer based in the Black Country captured the impressive display from Kingswinford, as the skies were lit up with stunning colours.

Sharing on Twitter about her delight after capturing the display, the photographer said: "Absolutely unbelievable!!!!

"The northern lights taken from Kingswinford in the West Midlands!! It started green and then put on a show!! Wow! I could cry!"

The colourful aurora, created by high-speed electrically charged particles from space colliding with gas molecules in Earth's upper atmosphere, is typically visible near the Earth's magnetic poles.

However, occasionally it can be seen in the night sky over Britain, as it did on Sunday.

The Met Office confirmed on Sunday that a "coronal hole high speed stream" had combined with "a rather fast coronal mass ejection" leading to sightings across the UK.

The head of space weather at the Met Office, Mark Gibbs, said: “The aurora will continue tonight but with cloudy skies across much of the UK, it may be too optimistic to expect clear sightings two nights in a row.

“Last night’s sighting saw the coincidence of perfect conditions, making the aurora visible on the north horizon in the south of England.

“If you have a clear sky tonight, head outside around midnight and have a look, but it is most likely to be visible from the west coast of Scotland.”

Royal Museums Greenwich explains on its website that the lights are caused by solar storms on the surface of the sun giving out clouds of electrically charged particles which can travel millions of miles and collide with the Earth.

Most particles are deflected away but some are captured in the Earth’s magnetic field and accelerate down towards the north and south poles, colliding with atoms and molecules in the Earth’s atmosphere, according to the observatory.

The lights are the product of this collision between atoms and molecules from the Earth’s atmosphere and particles from the sun.

A Met Office spokesperson said the rare sightings of the aurora borealis further south in the UK on Sunday night were due to the “strength” of a geomagnetic storm and the “strip of cloudless skies” in southern regions.