IF you’ve always wanted to see the Northern Lights, this could be your year – with a Scottish island one of the hotspots to catch them
According to weather experts, the Aurora Borealis will be putting on their best performance in over a decade in 2024.
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Erica Grow Cei, a meteorologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center, said increased activity on the sun will mean the lights will be seen further south than normal and will be even more spectacular than usual.
However the trick is working out where and when the aurora borealis will appear.
Chasing after the northern lights usually means booking a trip to far-flung destinations like Iceland or the tip of Norway.
But this year, the celestial phenomenon will be appearing closer to home for Scots as experts predict the aurora borealis could be lighting up the skies in magical displays over the country.
And Skye has been named one of the top destinations people are looking to visit in the hope of catching the dancing ribbons of red, green and magenta by online travel giant Expedia.
Now they’ve released a new Northern Lights Insider Guide after discovering more than half of us (57 per cent) have seeing them at the top of our bucketlist.
Melanie Fish, head of Expedia Group Brands public relations said: “Planning your Northern Lights adventure might feel like navigating uncharted territory, but we’ve made it easy for travellers to make this trip a reality.”
The free guide also shows where to stay and how to bundle a whole trip together. There’s even a photography guide to make sure you know how to capture the memory. The lights will be more likely to appear around the March and September equinoxes.
Expedia searches are skyrocketing for winter trips to Northern Lights “capitals” like Lapland in Finland (+370 per cent), Canada’s Churchill (110 per cent) and Alta in Norway (+100 per cent).
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Their Top Ten Trending Northern Lights Destinations Worldwide, based on the result of searches, has Finnish Lapland coming in at number one and Canada’s famous polar bear town of Churchill next.
It’s back to Finland with Rovaniemi coming in third, followed by Narvik and Kirkens in Norway at numbers four and five.
Kálfafell, in Iceland, Inari in Finland and Abisko, Sweden follow in sixth, seventh and eight place, with Skye making number nine, as searches to visit soared by over 60 per cent on Expedia, followed by Tromsø in Norway.
See the Northern Lights Insider Guide at
expedia.com/newsroom/northern-lights/