AuroraBlog
Northern lights guides, from our data
How to plan an aurora trip, written from ten winters of camera and sky data rather than from hearsay.
Clouds · Friday 30 October 2026Do clouds stop the northern lights? Ten winters of airport cloud dataThick low cloud blocks the northern lights completely, and it is the most common reason travellers miss them. In ten winters of airport reports, the clearest of our 12 destinations had a usable dark sky on about 7 nights in 10, the cloudiest on about 5 in 10.Accuracy · Friday 30 October 2026How accurate are aurora forecasts? We checked ours against all-sky camerasWe checked our nightly aurora ratings against all-sky cameras in northern Norway and Sweden over three winters. On nights rated Excellent, clearly visible aurora was recorded 79% of the time; on nights rated Low, 15%.Kp index · Friday 30 October 2026Why the Kp index can't tell you if you'll see the northern lightsKp measures how disturbed the Earth's magnetic field is, not whether you'll see anything. On nights a Kp-style forecast called good, low cloud covered the sky all night 41% of the time, the same as on all nights. In the far north, clouds and darkness decide more than Kp.Planning · Thursday 29 October 2026Best time to see the northern lights: month by month, from ten winters of dataThe best months are the ones that are both dark and clear. Here is when aurora cameras saw it most often, and when low cloud was rarest at twelve destinations, from ten winters of airport reports.The moon · Wednesday 28 October 2026Does a full moon ruin the northern lights? What our camera data showsA full moon does not ruin the northern lights, but it hides the faint ones. When we checked moonlit camera frames by eye, about half of the aurora the cameras recorded was still worth seeing for a person.
