I’d been steeling myself for an expensive trip to Norway to tick this one off. Incredibly, I was able to see them from my back garden, thanks to the solar storm that hit in May 2024.
I’ve spent many years hoping to see the northern lights. I had no luck during a trip to Iceland several years ago, and living in southern England I thought I had little chance seeing them at home.
When my aurora app pinged to say the aurora might be visible from anywhere in the UK I dutifully headed out to a nearby hill with low expectations. I’ve been out looking on several occasions and have always been disappointed.
But not this time! Unknown to me, the earth was being hit by the biggest solar storm in two decades.
Standing on the hill I initially couldn’t see anything unusual. Then my daughter, who was camping in Wiltshire, sent a photo showing a pink glow from her campsite. This notched up my excitement level!
We continued looking and after a while saw a faint glow. We took quite a few photos, from which you could just about make out the northern lights.
Relatively satisfied, I started driving home but as we approached town a pink light became visible by eye in the field to our left (west, rather than north). It was the most incredible moment!
I parked as quickly as I could and then spent the next 15 minutes watching an amazing light display. The best images were through the camera, but it was possible to see the lights via naked eye too, just a lot less bright. The aurora app was registering a reading of over 600 nT so this is going to be my ‘shall I bother to head out’ benchmark from now on!
We continued home, and spent another fabulous half hour sitting in the back garden watching the display and listening to an owl. I had to resist from running down the street telling everyone to look outside…
An unexpectedly fantastic and memorable evening!
Challenge complete!
See the northern lights – complete May 2024. Pop over to see the rest of my 60 things to do before I’m 60 list.