Alex Beresford, ITV weather presenter, tweeted: “There’s a chance to see the aurora tonight, more so in the north.

“Lots of solar activity and a release of plasma from the sun is set to collide with earth’s atmosphere amounting in this beautiful light display.

“Spoiler – could be cloudy but fingers crossed.”

The website AuroraWatch UK, run by scientists at Lancaster University’s Department of Physics, uses magnetometers to predict when aurora borealis might be visible from the UK.

Aurora borealis is most visible tonight between 9pm and 11pm, it revealed.