The weather service said sightings of the lights, also known as aurora borealis, were likely in Scotland and Northern Ireland, and possible in the north of England and the Midlands.

They said relatively clear skies were forecast for much of the UK, creating a “decent chance of visibility”.

It comes as there have been “more space weather events in recent months”, including the Northern Lights because the sun was nearing the peak of its solar cycle.

READ MORE: Did you see it? Spectacular images capture Northern Lights near Glasgow

Met Office spokesperson Stephen Dixon said there was a chance of some visible auroras across parts of the UK on Thursday night and into the early hours of Friday.

He added that there was still “some uncertainty” on when exactly the auroras would be visible.

Mr Dixon said: “When it does reach Earth, there are likely aurora sightings in Scotland and Northern Ireland, with a chance of some sightings in the north of England and slightly further south.

“Even in the Midlands too, if you’ve got a camera with a particularly long exposure that can highlight some of the auroras that are happening overhead.

“The further north you are, the more likely you are to get good visibility.”

He added: “In terms of cloud cover overnight, there are relatively clear skies for much of the UK, so there is a decent chance of visibility.

“The exception to that is in parts of the west of Scotland, where there’s still some showers and some more patchy clouds around.”

Northern Lights could be visible in Scotland this weekend

He added that further residual viewings could be possible over the weekend in Scotland. 

The auroras on Earth, which are most commonly seen over high polar latitudes but can often spread south to be visible over parts of the UK, are chiefly influenced by geomagnetic storms which originate from activity on the sun.

The sun works on a cycle of around 11 years called the solar cycle – with peak sunspot activity on the surface of the sun referred to as solar maximum.

Sunspots give the potential for Earth-directed releases of large bursts of energy, called coronal mass ejections, which can lead to aurora visibility.

Mr Dixon said: “We’re near the peak of that solar cycle so there have been more space weather events in recent months.

“International prediction centres, including the Met Office Space Weather Operations Centre, are expecting solar maximum to be later this year or early next year.”

He added that it would still be possible to see the Northern Lights in the UK once the sun passes the peak of the solar cycle.

What are the Northern Lights?

The Northern Lights are caused by charged particles from the sun hitting gases in the Earth's atmosphere.

The colours occur due to different gases in the Earth's atmosphere being energised by the charged particles.

Nitrogen and oxygen are the two most common gases in the atmosphere, with nitrogen emitting purple, blue and pink colours and oxygen emitting green.