THE Northern Lights are expected to return and be seen across the South West skies this weekend.

Confirmed by NASA and the Met Office, the aurora is set to return in a "once in a decade" scenario.

The Met Office says there is a possibility of seeing the lights on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, when the skies are dark.

Storms could be "increasingly likely" on Sunday thanks to the rotation of the Sun.

Weather experts have said that from this Friday (November 8) people can expect the start of a "solar maximum" which is expected to enhance solar displays over the next 12 months.

It’s a phase that happens every 11 years, and is characterised by an increase in sunspots and solar flares.

The likelihood of seeing the Aurora, even at lower latitudes, is expected to increase due to the solar maximum.

The Met Office suggests this could lead to “an ongoing chance of further space weather activity, and ultimately the potential for aurora visibility here on Earth”.

While Northern Scotland is often the best spot in the UK to see the Northern Lights, there’s belief that the spectacle will become more common across other parts of the country soon.

Aurora borealis: The best pictures of the illuminated sky in Somerset: Read More.

Generally, the best chances of seeing the aurora is generally around the hours of local midnight, 10pm - 2am.

However, the aurora may appear at any time during the night depending on geomagnetic activity.

The Met Office noted that a geomagnetic storm caused by solar flares and CMEs in May was the strongest in two decades.

A spokesperson from the Met Office said: "A Coronal Mass Ejection that left the Sun on Nov 5 may have given the Earth a very slight and glancing blow around 10.30am on Friday, November 8."

The last time the Aurora Borealis was spotted in Somerset was on October 11, 

The Met Office spokesperson added: "Connection to a number of weak streams of fast solar winds may occur, leading to possible minor enhancement.

"If this were to happen, then aurora may become visible across northern Scotland, and similar latitudes, where skies are clear.

"While it’s not possible to know precisely what this means for individual Earth-directed solar events, it does mean there will likely be further chances of aurora visibility in the UK in the coming months."