Forecasters say the Northern Lights could be visible in night skies into the weekend across swathes of the UK stretching as far south as northern England.
Geomagnetic activity is expected to spike due to two colossal eruptions of solar flares from a sun spot which briefly faced the Earth.
Space weather centres are predicting a G3 magnetic storm, classed as ‘strong’ on the range from G1 to G5, supercharging the disturbances in the planet’s magnetic sphere which cause the eyecatching phenomenon.
The spike began in the early hours of Thursday morning, when much of the UK’s northern areas were under cloud cover, but is expected to peak on the nights of Thursday and Friday.
The best chances of seeing it are in Scotland, Northern Ireland and parts of northern England provided skies are clear, the Met Office said.
Its forecasters said it was not possible to say for certain whether a given region would have sightings, explaining the likelihood increases the further north you live.
Cloud cover forecasts suggest people in western Scotland, Northern Ireland and coastal areas of North-West England and North Yorkshire will have the highest chances of good visibility at around midnight on Thursday.
On Friday night most of the UK’s north will be overcast, although much of Yorkshire’s skies are expected to clear up for a time around 10pm.
Many people popping out to check the skies will be stepping onto snow after a cold snap saw several centimetres fall onto West Yorkshire and Northumberland and is expected to bring more further south and west.
Temperatures will plummet to an average of around 1C across the UK on Thursday and Friday nights, remaining in the single digits during the daytime, the Met Office added.
The boosted Aurora Borealis is ‘due to the expected disturbance in the Earth’s magnetic environment as a result of two Earth-directed Coronal Mass Ejections or CMEs’, the British Geological Survey said.
These CMEs are ‘cannibal’ types, which is when a solar flare is swallowed up by a second larger flare, resulting in ‘tangled magnetic fields and compressed plasmas’.
The first flare lifted from the sun at around 12.30pm on Monday and the second followed approximately eight hours later.
The BGS added: ‘These CMEs are expected to arrive at Earth early on 31st March, causing significant disturbances to the geomagnetic field.’
Astronomers believe the Earth is entering a period of increased solar activity which could peak in 2025.
Earlier this year SpaceX confirmed that a geomagnetic storm caused by solar activity destroyed the bulk of a set of Starlink satellites it was trying to fly into orbit.
The storm heated and expanded the Earth’s atmosphere, causing a spike in atmospheric drag which pulled the satellites back down to earth.
Scientists say this week’s magnetic storms are ‘unlikely’ to have an impact on the UK’s power grid or other ground technology.
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