Northern lights seen over West Midlands

The northern lights were seen across the West Midlands on Sunday night.

An aurora is formed by a solar flare erupting on the Sun, sending charged particles towards Earth which interact with our atmosphere.

More displays are expected in the coming nights.

BBC Weather Watchers and keen aurora-enthusiasts shared their images of the lights.

Rob Davies is a member of the Aurora Hunters UK group and was tipped off to expect something spectacular, but said the display "blew my socks off".

He said he had seen green lights before, but never reds and purples and the experience had been "magical".

Mr Davies said his group had "been talking for about 24 hours that we could get something" and he rushed outside when he heard the display was imminent.

He said it had only lasted about 15 minutes, but plans to go out again on Monday night, in the hope of catching another glimpse.

Seeing the lights so close to home was special, he said.

"I went all the way to Iceland to see the northern lights and didn't see a thing."

Over the past few days, a strong solar flare on the Sun's surface was directed toward Earth with charged particles reaching our atmosphere on Sunday night.

The charged particles interact with oxygen and nitrogen which then emits green and red colours over our poles.

If it's a strong solar flare, the charged particles can travel further away from the poles, reaching the UK.

There may be another opportunity to see the northern lights on Monday night when skies are expected to be clear.