Best start to the Northern Lights season this solar cycle

Read more about the start of the Northern Lights holidays season from our travel expert, Jonny Cooper, on the Telegraph.co.uk

Aurora travel experts agree that the 2015 winter season is set to be the most active start for geomagnetic storms, which cause spectacular Northern Lights displays, this solar cycle. This follows yet another very strong solar storm last night which once again brought the Aurora Borealis as far south as the UK.

Data collected over the last month that measures activity from the Sun, has seen a 60% increase in geomagnetic storms (K index 5 or more) compared to the same time in 2014, with very powerful storms (K index 7 or more) trebling over the same period.

The difficulty has been that many of the solar storms that have caused these recent displays of the Northern Lights, have been difficult to predict, with many of the bigger events taking Aurora hunters by surprise.

Jonny Cooper, our resident Northern Lights holiday expert and founder of Off the Map Travel, explains:

“All of the data we’ve seen suggests that this could be the most active start to any Northern Lights season we have had this solar cycle. Great news for Aurora hunters.

“The ability to forecast solar activity, and therefore displays of the Northern Lights, is however not an exact science, with many of the recent events taking experts the world over by surprise, making it impossible to estimate how this will develop for the rest of the Aurora season.”

The display of the Northern Lights last night was clearly seen and captured by photographers across Scotland, but should have also been visible much further south in Northern to mid England.

Our own expert, Jonny Cooper said:

“We’ll be keeping our eye’s on the forecast, as well as looking skyward, over the coming months to see how this incredible start to the season develops for our guests embarking on their dream Northern Lights holidays.”

For those looking to get the best chance of seeing the Northern Lights, experts recommend northerly destinations under the Aurora Oval such as northern Sweden, Norway and Finland.

A ten night small group guided Original Grand Aurora tour with Off the Map Travel costs £5999 per person not including flights based on two sharing. The Grand Aurora includes an expert guide, accommodation on a half board basis, reindeer sledding, a Tromso guided city walk, Northern Lights dinner cruise, an Arctic experience, Alaska trapper dogsledding tour, Lights Over Lapland Aurora and photography evening, Aurora Sky Station exclusive dinner trip, a visit to the ICEHOTEL, a three border point snowmobile trip, Northern Lights tour in a snowmobile-pulled sled and a reindeer and culture tour as well as lots of exclusive extras such as meals in fantastic restaurants and fika stops on travel days.

UK NORTHERN LIGHTS GALLERY (07/09/15)

We would like to thank Chris and the team at Aurora Addicts for supporting the Off the Map Travel team in gathering some of the best pictures from across the UK taken during the Geomagnetic Storm that reached the UK on the 7th September 2015:

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