Best places to see the northern lights, ranked by the numbers

The short answer: the most reliable places are in interior northwestern Canada and Alaska: Yellowknife, Fairbanks, Whitehorse and Dawson City. They sit under the auroral oval, so an ordinary night is enough, and they are inland, so their skies are clearer than the coasts. Northern Norway, Swedish and Finnish Lapland, and Iceland need just as little activity but see more cloud. Scotland, Jasper and Tasmania need a geomagnetic storm.

What makes a place good for the northern lights

Three things, in this order.

• Magnetic latitude. The aurora follows Earth's magnetic field, not the lines on a map. A place close to the auroral oval sees it on quiet nights; a place further away needs a storm. That is why Yellowknife, at 62°N on the map, does better than towns much further north in Europe. We turn each place's magnetic latitude into the Kp it needs, explained in our Kp guide.
• Clear sky. Cloud is the most common reason people miss the aurora. Inland places in the rain shadow of mountains do best; coasts that face the Atlantic or the Pacific do worst.
• Darkness. North of the Arctic Circle the summer has no night at all, so every destination has a season, roughly late August to mid April.

The ranking

The last column multiplies the two: the average number of clear, dark nights in a season on which Kp also reached what that place needs. It is an upper estimate, because Kp only has to reach the level at some point in the day, and some of those hours are daylight. It is equally generous everywhere, so it is fair for comparing places, which is what it is for.

Under the oval, with clearer skies

Interior North America and western Greenland. These need little or no activity, and their skies give a clear dark night on roughly a third to a half of the nights in the season.

Yellowknife has the highest magnetic latitude of any city you can drive to, so activity is almost never the problem. Fairbanks sits in the dry interior of Alaska and comes out almost level with it. Whitehorse comes third on these numbers; it needs Kp 1.3, a little more than the two ahead of it. Dawson City and Inuvik are further north and more remote. Churchill needs no activity at all but sees more cloud than the others. In western Greenland, Ilulissat is so far north magnetically that the aurora is often overhead or in the southern sky.

Country pages: Northern lights in Canada, the Yukon, Alaska, Greenland.

Under the oval, with more cloud

Northern Scandinavia, Iceland and Kangerlussuaq in Greenland. Activity is just as rarely the problem, but these places sit near the North Atlantic, and the weather takes more nights. Plan on more nights, and on a car or a tour that can drive to wherever the sky is clear.

Tromsø is the practical base for northern Norway: the largest city in the north, direct flights from Oslo and several European cities, and tours that drive inland or along the coast depending on the cloud. Alta and Senja need the same Kp, and Svalbard has the aurora in the middle of the day during the polar night. In Sweden, Kiruna has the airport and the overnight train from Stockholm, and Abisko is known for its rain shadow. Finnish Lapland's Levi and Rovaniemi need a little more activity than Tromsø. In Iceland, Reykjavík needs Kp 1.1 and Akureyri about 0.5.

† Abisko: the cloud record we use works on a grid about 25 to 30 km across, too coarse to see Abisko's local rain shadow, so we leave its cloud figures out rather than publish one we don't trust.

Country pages: Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland.

Storm destinations

These need a geomagnetic storm, or close to one. Their skies are often as clear as anywhere above, but Kp has to climb first, so most nights are out of reach. They are worth watching rather than worth a dedicated trip, unless you live there or can go at short notice when a storm is forecast.

Anchorage sits between the groups: Kp 2.1 is reached on most days. Jasper is a dark-sky preserve that needs about Kp 3.7. Shetland and Inverness are the UK's best chances, at about Kp 4.4 and 5.5. Hobart is the one southern lights destination here, and needs about Kp 6.3.

Country page: Northern lights in Scotland.

* Estimated: worked out from nearby places we have calibrated, until sighting reports confirm it.

How to choose between them

• Only a few nights? Pick from the first group. The more nights the sky gives you, the fewer you need.
• Want a city, flights and tours? Fairbanks, Whitehorse, Yellowknife, Tromsø, Rovaniemi and Reykjavík all have airports and aurora tours.
• Coming from Europe? Northern Norway, Swedish and Finnish Lapland, and Iceland are a short flight away. Allow for cloud: a week gives you far better odds than a weekend.
• Living further south? You don't need to travel for a storm. Read how far south you can see the northern lights, and use the live aurora map to check any town.

When to go matters as much as where: see the best time to see the northern lights. And whichever place you choose, the forecast for that place tonight is on its page, worked out for its own magnetic latitude.

How we worked this out

• Kp needed: from each place's magnetic latitude, calibrated against sighting reports where we have them (how it works).
• Clear dark nights: nights in the season with at least three hours under 40% cloud while the sun is more than 12° below the horizon, averaged over July 2016 to June 2026 from the Open-Meteo ERA5 archive (CC BY 4.0). Thin high cloud is weighted as the partial cover it is.
• Days Kp gets there: the share of days since 1932 whose highest Kp reached that place's level, from GFZ Potsdam (CC BY 4.0). It swings with the 11-year solar cycle; the long record is the fair basis for comparing places.