Aurora forecast for travelers
Tonight's chance of the northern lights at Tromsø, Iceland, Finnish Lapland, Yellowknife, Alaska and more, from NOAA's Kp forecast.
Kp index now
1.3Quiet
Kp runs from 0 (quiet) to 9 (extreme storm).
Kp, next 3 days
3-hour steps, UTC. Faded bars are already measured; the rest is NOAA's forecast.
What does each Kp look like?
Drag the bar to change the Kp and see the aurora you could expect from the place you pick.
Overhead and across much of the sky. Mostly green. By eye you can see pale green, brighter on camera.
An illustration from a rule of thumb, not a photo: real aurora differs night to night even at the same Kp.
Where the aurora is right now
NOAA's OVATION model: the chance of seeing aurora over the next half hour, around the North Pole. The ring sits farther south when the Kp is high.
Forecast for Oct 18, 2026, 9:58:00 PM GMT+9 · NOAA SWPC OVATION (public domain)
Tonight at aurora destinations
| Place | Dark hours (local) | Kp needed | Kp then | Clouds | Chance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TromsøNorway | 7:11 PM–6:01 AM | 0 | 2.3 | 95% | Slim |
| Lofoten (Svolvær)Norway | 7:31 PM–6:21 AM | 0 | 2.3 | 100% | Slim |
| AbiskoSweden | 7:11 PM–6:01 AM | 0 | 2.3 | 72% | Good |
| KirunaSweden | 7:11 PM–5:51 AM | 1 | 2.3 | 50% | Good |
| SaariselkäFinland | 7:41 PM–6:21 AM | 1 | 2.3 | 21% | Good |
| RovaniemiFinland | 7:41 PM–6:31 AM | 1 | 2.3 | 15% | Good |
| HelsinkiFinland | 7:41 PM–6:41 AM | 4 | 2.3 | 75% | Unlikely |
| ReykjavíkIceland | 7:51 PM–6:41 AM | 0 | 2.3 | 55% | Good |
| YellowknifeCanada | 8:01 PM–7:01 AM | 0 | 2.3 | 43% | Good |
| WhitehorseCanada | 5:11 AM–7:21 AM | 1 | 1.3 | 100% | Slim |
| ChurchillCanada | 7:41 PM–6:41 AM | 0 | 2.3 | 98% | Slim |
| FairbanksAlaska, USA | 4:11 AM–7:01 AM | 1 | 1.3 | 14% | Possible |
| Sapporo (Hokkaido)Japan | 9:11 PM–4:51 AM | 9 (extreme storms only) | 1.3 | 100% | Unlikely |
| SeoulSouth Korea | 9:11 PM–5:51 AM | 9 (extreme storms only) | 1.3 | 26% | Unlikely |
How to read this
Kp measures how disturbed Earth's magnetic field is. The higher it is, the farther south the aurora reaches.
Each place needs a certain Kp to see the aurora, mostly set by how close it is to the magnetic pole. Tromsø or Yellowknife can see it on a quiet night; Helsinki needs about Kp 4.
The chance combines the Kp forecast during the place's dark hours with cloud cover. Kp forecasts are uncertain beyond a day, and clouds matter as much as Kp.
Tips for seeing it
- Look north from somewhere away from city lights, ideally between 10 PM and 2 AM local time.
- Give it time: activity comes in bursts of 10 to 30 minutes.
- A phone camera in night mode often shows colors your eyes see only as gray.
- September to March is the season: the far north has no real night in summer.
Can you see it from Korea?
Very rarely. Korea is far from the magnetic pole, so only the strongest storms of a decade, like the Kp 9 storm of May 2024, bring a faint red glow low in the northern sky, mostly visible to cameras.
Kp: NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center (public domain).Clouds: based on MET Norway forecasts (CC BY 4.0), taken at each pass time, rounded and labeled by us. About 9 days ahead.