Northern Lights UK Tonight, Nov. 1, 2026: Met Office Aurora Chance in Scotland

Tonight, Sunday 1 November 2026, from full darkness around 6:30 to 6:50 p.m. Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) in Scotland, the Met Office gives a chance of aurora sightings across northern Scotland where skies are clear. The forecast, issued at 14:42 GMT, says a solar wind enhancement arrived on Saturday 31 October and increased auroral activity. Below are darkness times for eight UK cities, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) numbers for the evening, and when activity is expected to fade.

What does the Met Office say about aurora tonight?

The Met Office Space Weather page, the UK’s official forecast, reads: “A chance of Aurora sightings during the hours of darkness on Sunday across northern Scotland, where skies are clear. Monday night onwards auroral activity is expected to reduce towards background levels.” It names northern Scotland and no other part of the UK.

Its overview, issued at 12:54 GMT, headlines a continued chance of G1/Minor geomagnetic storms on Day 1 (1 November) with elevated solar winds. In the past 24 hours it recorded a G2/Moderate storm (Kp6) interval between 18:00 and 21:00 UTC on 31 October and a G1/Minor storm (Kp5) from 00:00 to 03:00 on 1 November. Solar wind peaked briefly above 600 km/s and is now near 500 km/s. The source is a coronal hole high speed stream, and the Met Office lists no Earth-directed coronal mass ejections (CMEs).

When does it get dark in Scotland and northern England tonight?

Aurora needs a dark sky, so the start of astronomical darkness is the earliest useful time. Times are Greenwich Mean Time, which equals Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) in November, computed by Fresh Calendars from the NOAA solar calculation.

City	Sunset, Sun. 1 Nov	Darkness begins	Darkness ends, Mon. 2 Nov
Lerwick	16:09	18:32	05:05
Kirkwall	16:21	18:39	05:13
Inverness	16:32	18:44	05:18
Aberdeen	16:24	18:35	05:10
Edinburgh	16:33	18:40	05:14
Glasgow	16:38	18:44	05:18
Belfast	16:48	18:50	05:25
Newcastle	16:30	18:33	05:08

Monday night, 2 November, is a few minutes different:

City	Sunset, Mon. 2 Nov	Darkness begins	Darkness ends, Tue. 3 Nov
Lerwick	16:06	18:30	05:07
Kirkwall	16:18	18:37	05:15
Inverness	16:29	18:42	05:20
Aberdeen	16:22	18:33	05:12
Edinburgh	16:31	18:38	05:16
Glasgow	16:35	18:42	05:20
Belfast	16:46	18:49	05:27
Newcastle	16:28	18:31	05:10

Newcastle and Belfast are listed for planning only. The Met Office forecast for tonight names northern Scotland.

What do NOAA’s numbers show for tonight in the UK?

NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) issued its 3-day forecast at 12:30 UTC on 1 November. The greatest observed 3-hour planetary K-index (Kp) over the past 24 hours was 6, NOAA Scale G2. The greatest expected Kp for 1 to 3 November is 4.67 (G1), and SWPC says periods of G1 (Minor) storming are likely on 1 November because of positive polarity coronal hole high speed stream influences.

That G1 period is the 00:00 to 03:00 UTC block on 1 November, which has already ended. The numbers for tonight are lower, so the window can be short and the best chance is the far north of Scotland. SWPC’s blocks in GMT:

Date	UTC block (same as GMT)	Forecast Kp
Sun. 1 Nov	00:00-03:00	4.67 (G1)
Sun. 1 Nov	18:00-21:00	2.67
Sun. 1 Nov	21:00-00:00	2.67
Mon. 2 Nov	18:00-21:00	1.67
Mon. 2 Nov	21:00-00:00	2.00
Tue. 3 Nov	18:00-21:00	1.67
Tue. 3 Nov	21:00-00:00	1.33

Source: SWPC 3-Day Forecast issued 1 November 2026, 12:30 UTC. Forecasts change, so check the Met Office page again before you go out. Neither agency promises a sighting.

When does aurora activity fade after tonight?

The Met Office four-day outlook expects ongoing Unsettled to Active conditions (Kp3-4) at first, with a chance of occasional G1/Minor storms (Kp5) and a slight chance of an isolated G2/Moderate (Kp6) interval. By Day 2 (2 November) it expects activity to decline to Quiet to Unsettled (Kp2-3), then mostly Quiet (Kp1-2) by the end of the period. Solar wind returns to background by 3 to 4 November. The Met Office also says that, in the Southern Hemisphere, aurora sightings are likely across the far south of New Zealand on Sunday night UTC.

How will the Moon affect the view?

The Moon reaches last quarter at 3:28 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST) on 1 November, which is 20:28 GMT, according to the U.S. Naval Observatory (USNO). A half-lit Moon rises late in the evening, so the early dark hours are moon-free. For the rest of the month, see our night sky calendar for planets and the Moon.

Where can you keep the aurora dates?

Print the UK Aurora Watch sheet with the darkness times for Lerwick, Kirkwall, Inverness and Aberdeen and the Met Office outlook. The US view of the same storm, with NOAA’s dates for later in November, is in our northern lights forecast for the US. Meteors are covered in the November 2026 meteor shower guide, and the November 2026 printable calendar holds the month. For the US clock change, see when daylight saving time ends.