It was the height of solar maximum, and this particular day I noticed the Sky TV was very 'dotty' (proton storm in progress), so I watched out for status updates from http://www.n3kl.org/sun/noaa.html and the Kp index went through the roof just before midnight.

Deep red surges of colour in the sky, visible to the north even through the light pollution of Reading is pretty severe.

But I still want to go to Alaska or Norway to see them properly.
--
simon