A BBC weather presenter has shared his insights into why the Northern Lights in some parts of Yorkshire found themselves disappointed last night.

Simon King, the lead weather presenter at BBC, shed some light on Saturday night’s failed Northern Lights viewing. Cloud cover reportedly played spoilsport, obscuring view of the spectacular natural phenomenon for star-gazers across Yorkshire and the UK.

Mr King explained that while a decrease in aurora activity was predicted as Saturday night approached, it declined abruptly just as darkness fell, leading to “really bad timing”.

Read more: Will there be more Northern Lights tonight? Best places to see them in Yorkshire

However, it might not be the end of the road for those eagerly awaiting the next display. The forecast suggests that there’s potential for witnessing the Northern Lights yet again from Sunday night into Monday morning.

However, clouds are anticipated to play an unhelpful role once more, reports the Manchester Evening News.

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Blackstone Edge reservoir, near Rochdale, on Friday
(Image: Andrew Stuart (07841537040))

Simon King took to X, previously known as Twitter, to share his thoughts: “Wondering what happened to the aurora last night? As suggested yesterday, activity was expected to decrease, but it dropped off quickly just as it went dark. Really bad timing unfortunately.”

He added: “After the Northern Lights disappointment of last night, there’s still lots of solar activity so potential tonight (though cloud/showers may be a problem for some). Unlikely to be as good as Friday night, but geomagnetic levels of severe (G4) are forecast.”

So, all might not be lost for hopeful viewers yet.

As per the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Earth was recently affected by a G5 geomagnetic solar storm, the most powerful on their scale. This “extreme” form of solar storm is attributed to an exceptionally large diameter sunspot cluster, 17 times the size of our planet. The remarkable result?

An extraordinary display of pink and green lights that lit up the night sky all over the UK and Europe on Friday. Sightings were recorded as far south in the UK as Suffolk.

Photographs of the aurora borealis flooded into Yorkshire Live from across the county with iconic landmarks silhouetted on a backdrop of pink, purple and yellow skies.

The lights are unlikely to be visible until it gets very dark at around 11pm. Remote, open areas with views of the northern horizon are best.

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