Northern lights: when and where to see the aurora

You need three things to see the aurora: a place under the auroral oval, a dark sky and a clear night. The oval is a ring around the magnetic pole, roughly between 65° and 70° north, which covers northern Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, Alaska and northern Canada. The lights are there all year, but from May to August the far north has too much daylight to see them, so the season runs from late August or September to early April.

When in the season

• September and October: nights are long enough again, lakes are not yet frozen, and you can photograph the aurora over water. The weather in coastal Norway is often wet.
• November to January: the longest nights. Far up in the Arctic the sun does not rise at all for weeks, so you have the most hours of darkness, along with the coldest weather.
• February and March: long nights, more daylight for everything else, and often the most settled, clear weather of the winter.

Geomagnetic activity tends to be a little higher around the equinoxes in late September and March. The sun's 11-year cycle peaked around 2024 and 2025, and strong displays usually stay more frequent for a few years after the peak.

Where to go

• Tromsø, Norway: the easiest Arctic city to reach, with tours that drive inland or to Finland to find clear sky.
• Lofoten, Norway: aurora over mountains and fishing villages. Mild for the Arctic, but cloudier than inland, and November is often wet and stormy. February and March are the surest months.
• Abisko, Sweden: a national park with a reputation for clear skies, because the mountains around it keep a patch of sky open when the rest of the region is cloudy.
• Finnish Lapland: Rovaniemi, Levi and Saariselkä, with forest, frozen lakes and glass-roofed cabins.
• Iceland: the aurora is often visible an hour from Reykjavík. The weather changes fast, so stay flexible and check the cloud forecast.
• Svalbard: so far north that in December and January you can see the aurora in the middle of the day. That polar night is very dark and cold, so most visitors come from late February to March, when daylight is back and the nights are still dark.
• Yellowknife, Canada: directly under the oval, with dry, clear winters. It is one of the most reliable places in the world.
• Fairbanks, Alaska: the local season is counted from late August to late April, and the hot springs north of town make the waiting easier.
• Murmansk and Greenland are further options for travellers who have been to the usual places.

Southern lights

The aurora australis is visible from the far south of Tasmania and New Zealand's South Island, including the dark-sky reserve at Lake Tekapo. It needs a strong display, and the best months are the southern winter, March to September.

Improving your chances

• Stay at least three or four nights. Most of what decides a sighting is cloud cover, and a few nights give you more chances.
• Check the cloud forecast first and the aurora forecast (the Kp index) second. A clear sky with modest activity beats a strong forecast under cloud.
• The most active hours are usually between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. local time.
• Get away from town lights, and avoid the nights around a full moon if you can.
• A phone or camera on a tripod picks up more color than your eyes do. A faint gray arc to the eye can come out green on the screen.