THE Northern Lights have been putting on a marvellous display this week. Not only have they created a phenomenon in the skies but also on the ground.

After dark, country lanes all over the rural parts of the North East have been full of cars driving around with their occupants looking for a secluded lay-by in which to stop so they can study the stars – and joke with anyone else who turns up about illicit night-time activities that might happen after dark in lay-bys on other evenings.

Notwithstanding the plummeting temperatures, the celestial shows of the last few months have been something to behold. One night it has been exploding silver chains of light; another we had a magnificent display of shooting stars, and then on Wednesday night, there were swathes of red washing across the northern skies.

There is a scientific explanation for why people have seen so much in the skies recently – we are nearing peak solar activity, apparently – but there are other reasons. Everyone now carries sophisticated digital cameras which can “see” things in the dark night sky that the human eye struggles to make out and so the photographs look fantastic.

Then there is the usually maligned social media which is keeping people informed in real time about the aurora’s performance and where to go to see it. Once alerted, who can resist the lure of the borealis?

In the lay-bys, there is a real community, a shared interest, among those standing hopefully in the freezing dark. One lady told us she had spent hundreds on a holiday to Iceland to see the Northern Lights yet she had got a better view at the Summerhouse crossroads above Darlington – for free!

And there’s the point: there’s no charge for this wonderful show that’s going on in our backyards. Give it a go, if you can stand the cold.