The Northern Lights could be visible across the UK tonight (including Cornwall!) due to a severe geomagnetic storm threatening to disrupt the world’s power grids, mobile phone networks and GPS satellites.

The whole of Britain could see spectacular aurora borealis tonight thanks to a massive solar storm that threatens to wreak havoc across the world.

Scientists fear the “severe” geomagnetic storm – the first to hit Earth in nearly 20 years – has the power to disrupt power grids, mobile networks and GPS satellites.

The unusual event will also cover much of the country in a spectacular light show (an “aurora”).

Stargazers as far south as Cornwall could get a glimpse, the Met Office said.

After a series of solar flares on Wednesday, several bursts of solar radiation have now combined into a single wave that will hit Earth this evening.

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The bright colors of the aurora are caused by electrically charged particles from the sun colliding with Earth’s magnetic field.

Typically, the sun ejects just enough plasma to trigger lights around the poles where the magnetic fields are strongest.

But during events called ‘coronal mass ejections’, the sun releases huge waves of plasma from its corona – the sun’s outermost layer.

On Thursday, NOAA issued a Severe (G4) Geomagnetic Storm Watch for the first time since January 2005.

Throughout Wednesday and Thursday, a sunspot 16 times the diameter of Earth unleashed several coronal mass ejections (CMEs) in the direction of the planet.

However, a powerful flare launched on Thursday proved to be particularly fast and is now expected to “sweep away” all the radiation in one wave.

While this might sound ominous, this is actually great news for stargazers in the Northern Hemisphere.

The Met Office says: “Where skies are clear and with sufficiently dark skies, sightings are expected to develop after the arrival of the CME in the northern half of the UK.”

They add that there is “a chance that the aurora will become visible in all parts of the UK and at similar geomagnetic latitudes”.

Increased auroral activity should persist over the weekend into Sunday night and potentially into next week due to the chance for more CMEs to arrive in the coming days.

Met Office Space Weather Manager Krista Hammond told MailOnline: ‘Although the short nights at this time of year will limit the visibility window, if conditions are right there is a good chance of sightings on Friday evening.

“Aurora visibility may persist until Saturday evening, but it is currently likely to be less widespread than on Friday evening, with northern areas of the UK most likely to continue to have the best viewing potential.”

Weather conditions tonight should also give many places a decent chance of seeing the aurora.

By this evening most of the UK should avoid any rain with clear skies over Scotland and much of N and W England.

Mathew Owens, professor of space physics at the University of Reading, said it was worth looking north in the night sky at around 2am UK time this evening (early Saturday morning).

“If you go to bed late or wake up before sunrise, it’s worth looking north because you might see the northern lights,” he said.

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“A strong aurora is likely for Scotland and N England (and the weather looks to cooperate for optimal viewing).

“It may extend further south, but until we have those measurements of the magnetic field when the CMEs arrive, it’s hard to say.”

However, experts from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) also warn that these beautiful displays could come with significant disruptions.

NOAA says, “Geomagnetic storms can impact infrastructure in near-Earth orbit and on the Earth’s surface, potentially disrupting communications, the power grid, navigation, radio and satellite operations.”

As clouds of particles from the sun break into gases in the atmosphere, their collision creates electricity.

That electric field absorbs the radio waves we use to communicate, meaning signals to satellites and other services can’t get through – creating radio blackouts.

The Met Office has issued an R3 Xray radio disruption alert, indicating that severe radio disruption is likely as the storm arrives.

That electricity can also flow into the power grid, causing damage and blackouts.

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NOAA points out that the last G5 (Extreme) solar storm in 2003 caused power outages after Sweden and damaged transformers in South Africa.

Geomagnetic storms can also cause the atmosphere to expand until it engulfs satellites in low Earth orbit.

Like a headwind, that air resistance slows the satellite down and makes it harder for them to stay in orbit.

In some cases, this could disrupt satellites, which are essential for communications and GPS navigation.

However, it is not certain how disruptive today’s storm will be, but it is unlikely to be the last major solar event of the year.

The sun has a cycle of activity that peaks every 11 years in an event called solar maximum.

During this so-called maximum, the sun has a much larger number of sunspots, which are the origins of the largest coronal mass ejections.

A study published last year found that this maximum is coming sooner than some scientists had anticipated, meaning that space weather is likely to be volatile for some time.

In March, this resulted in a G2 solar storm that triggered aurora over Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Lead author Dr Dibyendu Nandi, a physicist at IISER Kolkata’s Center of Excellence for Space Sciences, told MailOnline at the time: The most intense storms can sometimes lead to catastrophic orbital disintegration of low Earth-orbiting satellites and disrupt services based on on satellite.

“They can also induce strong disturbances in the geomagnetic field, triggering power grids located in high-latitude regions.”