Will the aurora be visible from where you are tonight? Live data from NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center, plus darkness and cloud cover for your location.
Loading the aurora forecast from NOAA…
Data: NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center (OVATION aurora forecast and Kp index), cloud cover from Open-Meteo (CC BY 4.0). Everything is downloaded by your browser; your location stays on your device.
Three things have to line up: enough geomagnetic activity to push the aurora as far as your latitude, a properly dark sky, and few clouds. The panel at the top checks all three for the location you pick.
The Kp index runs from 0 (quiet) to 9 (extreme storm) and is measured in three-hour blocks. The higher it is, the further the aurora oval spreads from the poles. In northern Norway, Iceland, northern Canada or Alaska you can see the aurora on many clear nights even at Kp 1–3. Most of Scotland, Scandinavia’s south, Canada’s southern provinces and the northern United States need around Kp 5–6. Central Europe and the middle of the United States need a strong storm of Kp 7 or more. The tool works out roughly which Kp your own location needs from its geomagnetic latitude, which matters more than the ordinary latitude: at the same latitude, North America sees aurora more easily than Europe or Asia.
The colored band on the map is NOAA’s OVATION model: the chance of seeing the aurora overhead in the next half hour to hour or so. Green is a low chance, yellow medium and red high. If the band is a few hundred kilometers poleward of you, you may still see it low on the horizon, toward the north in the northern hemisphere or the south in the southern hemisphere. The dark shading on the map is night; the aurora is there in daylight too, but you can only see it in the dark.
The tool counts the sky as dark once the sun is 12° below the horizon. Near midsummer at high latitudes it never gets that dark, which is why aurora season runs from late August to April. Cloud cover is the average forecast for the dark hours at your location; under about 30% gives you a fair chance of gaps.
It depends on your geomagnetic latitude. Near the Arctic Circle, Kp 1–3 is often enough; around 55° north (Scotland, southern Scandinavia, southern Canada) you usually need Kp 5–6; around 45–50° (central Europe, the northern US) you need Kp 7 or more. Pick your location above to see the estimate for your sky.
The aurora map covers roughly the next 30–90 minutes, based on solar wind measured by spacecraft between the Sun and Earth. The Kp forecast covers three days but is much less certain beyond the first day.
Yes. The same data covers both hemispheres. Choose “Southern lights” to see the aurora australis over Antarctica, the Southern Ocean, Tasmania, New Zealand and the far south of South America.
Aurora is only visible when the sun is well below the horizon. Close to midsummer at high latitudes, the sky never gets dark enough, even at midnight.