Northern lights: Oxfordshire gets spectacular surprise display

The northern lights provided a surprisingly strong display as aurora watchers had their cameras ready to capture the stunning display.

While there was an ongoing weak solar storm, the aurora ended up being visible from the Scotland's Highlands down to Cornwall.

Amateur astronomer Mary McIntyre, from Tackley, spotted the phenomenon.

She said: "I've photographed aurora from here over 20 times in the past ten years, so we're very lucky."

Activity on the Sun has been increasing over the past few years and is expected to peak this year, meaning the aurora becomes more frequent.

Those who follow aurora activity in the UK were alerted to a sudden spike in solar activity at about 17:00 GMT on Sunday evening when a "red alert" was issued by AuroraWatch UK.

The spike in solar activity lasted until 21:00 GMT.

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