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Northern lights tonight in Yellowknife? Aurora forecast

Will the northern lights show in Yellowknife, Canada, tonight? Kp forecast for its dark hours, the Kp it needs, and cloud cover.

Tonight in Yellowknife: Good. The aurora needs about Kp 0 here; NOAA forecasts up to Kp 2.3 during the dark hours, with 56% cloud cover.

GoodDark hours (local): Sun, Oct 18 7:57 PM–6:57 AM (MDT)
Kp needed
0
Kp then
2.3
Clouds
56%

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.

Kp 1.3 · Quiet
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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.

Kp, next 3 days

Sun, Oct 18
Mon, Oct 19
Tue, Oct 20
Wed, Oct 21

3-hour steps, UTC. Faded bars are already measured; the rest is NOAA's forecast.

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.

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.