The Northern Lights are forecast to be visible in the UK tonight.

A red alert has been issued by the AuroraWatch UK app.

It states: "It is likely that aurora will be visible by eye and camera from anywhere in the UK."

A distrubance level is recorded, which read 489.2nT (nanoteslas). This is a unit of measurement for magnetic flux density, equal to one billionth of a tesla.

A Met Office map has shown that we could see the Northern Lights from 6pm tonight and 3am tomorrow (Thursday, January 2) with the strongest opportunity around 9pm, reports our MyLondon.

Although, those looking to spot them should be aware that there will be cloud cover in many areas elsewhere that could make it difficult to spot the lights.

On its space section of its specialist forecasts, the Met Office said: "A Coronal Mass Ejection arrived at Earth yesterday (New Year's Eve, December 31), and a second weaker CME is expected to arrive today (January 1).

"The combination of the CME arrivals will bring slightly enhanced geomagnetic conditions today and possibly early tomorrow (Thursday, January 2) with a chance of visible aurora across northern Scotland, perhaps southern Scotland and Northern Ireland dependant on cloud cover.

"Geomagnetic activity then is expected to gradually decline to background levels."

Naturally, the aurora belt occurs around Norway, Iceland and Greenland.

This means that it takes an unusual geomagnetic storm to bring the lights southwards directly over the UK.

The best way to see the aurora in Britain during a storm is to make sure you are viewing during a clear night with no cloud cover.

The lights are best observed from a dark location with no light pollution, while looking towards the northern horizon.

Some stargazers say it is easier to spot the lights through a camera lens than with the naked eye.

You can download the AuroraWatch UK phone app to make sure you don’t miss an alert again. It is a free service which offers alerts of when the lights might be visible from the UK.