Lääne-Viru County, EstoniaMagnetic latitude 56.2°Population 14,98483 m above sea level
Northern lights in Rakvere
From Rakvere the aurora is visible on most active nights — first low to the north, from about Kp 3.
Right now
Quiet right now (Kp 0.7).
Updates every minute while this page is open.
Tonight in one minute
Yes — good chance tonight
- Solar activity Strong enough: Kp 4 expected, 3 needed here.
- Sky Mostly clear (0% cloud).
- Darkness Dark from 19:17 to 06:41. A bright moon (81%) washes out faint displays.
What to do: Go somewhere dark around 04:00, give your eyes 15 minutes to adjust and look north, low over the horizon.
Thursday 22 October — Good chance · Kp 4 · best around 04:30 · Forecast cloud: 0%. · Reliability: good
Each box is one night: the colour shows the chance, the number the expected Kp. Tap a night for details.
📅 Add these nights to your calendar — it updates itself (.ics)
How far ahead can the northern lights be forecast?
- Minutes to an hour: satellites 1.5 million km away measure the solar wind before it reaches Earth. This is the surest warning — the “Right now” box uses it.
- 1–3 days: when the Sun throws out a cloud of particles, it takes one to three days to arrive. NOAA's 3-hourly forecast covers these nights; the timing can still be off by a few hours.
- 4–27 days: the Sun turns once every 27 days, and regions that disturbed Earth's field last time often do it again. NOAA's 27-day outlook gives this rough trend — new eruptions are not in it yet.
Tonight
Updated 04:20 local time
Excellent chance
Best around 04:00. Forecast max Kp 4.0 (this place needs 3), average cloud 0%.
- Dark enough
- 19:17 – 06:41
- Sunset
- 17:48 · sunrise 08:11
- Moon
- 81% · ↑ 16:44 · ↓ 02:41
- Kp neededKp index: a 0–9 measure of geomagnetic activity. The higher it is, the further from the poles the aurora reaches.
- Kp 3
- Kp for photos
- In photos: from Kp 1.3 (a red glow low in the north).
- Look towards
- north (0°)
Cloud layers and weather
Low cloud blocks the aurora completely. Thin high cloud often still lets a bright aurora shine through, so a sky with only high cloud is worth a look.
| Time | Thu, 04 | Thu, 19 | Thu, 22 | Fri, 01 | Fri, 04 | Fri, 19 | Fri, 22 | Sat, 01 | Sat, 04 | Sat, 19 | Sat, 22 | Sun, 01 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Low cloud | 0% | 0% | 0% | 1% | 5% | 78% | 100% | 84% | 69% | 26% | 20% | 15% |
| Mid cloud | 1% | 0% | 7% | 42% | 72% | 49% | 74% | 55% | 55% | 56% | 68% | 23% |
| High cloud | 0% | 70% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 71% | 99% | 66% | 34% | 2% | 0% | 0% |
| Temperature | 7 °C | 10 °C | 8 °C | 7 °C | 7 °C | 10 °C | 9 °C | 9 °C | 9 °C | 9 °C | 8 °C | 7 °C |
| Feels like | 4 °C | 7 °C | 5 °C | 5 °C | 4 °C | 8 °C | 7 °C | 7 °C | 8 °C | 8 °C | 6 °C | 5 °C |
| Wind | 4 m/s | 5 m/s | 5 m/s | 4 m/s | 4 m/s | 5 m/s | 5 m/s | 4 m/s | 3 m/s | 3 m/s | 3 m/s | 3 m/s |
Cloud layers and weather: Open-Meteo (CC BY 4.0).
Score = activity (NOAA Kp and OVATION) × clear sky (MET Norway) × darkness × moonlight. Methodology
Weather in Rakvere
The aurora only shows through clear skies, so the weather matters as much as the Kp index. Here is the general forecast for Rakvere: temperature, wind and the chance of rain for the coming days.
Planning further ahead? See the hour-by-hour weather forecast for Rakvere on Atlas of Seasons.
Seeing it right now?
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Live webcams near Rakvere
Check the sky for yourself: public cameras within 300 km. They open on the camera owner's website.
These cameras belong to their owners — we only link to them. Most show little in daylight or under cloud, and some pause in summer.
Do you host guests in Rakvere? Give them a free aurora forecast page and a QR poster for your property. Create a guest page →
What you would see from Rakvere
Facing north. Bands show where the aurora sits at two activity levels.
| Kp | What you see | Lower edge | Ray tops | Distance to the aurora |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Faint glow, mostly on camera | 5° | 13° | 701 km |
| 3 | Visible to the north | 10° | 20° | 478 km |
| 4 | Visible to the north | 21° | 36° | 256 km |
| 5 | Visible to the north | 72° | 80° | 33 km |
| 6 | Overhead and all around | – | – | – |
| 7 | Overhead, and also to the south | – | – | – |
| 8 | Overhead, and also to the south | – | – | – |
| 9 | Overhead, and also to the south | – | – | – |
The Kp scale in plain words
Kp is a 0–9 score for how strongly the Earth's magnetic field is being shaken by the solar wind. The higher it goes, the further from the poles the northern lights reach. Kp 0–2 is a quiet night; Kp 5 and above is a geomagnetic storm.
- Kp 0–2 Quiet camera in Rakvere Only under the auroral oval: northern Norway, Swedish and Finnish Lapland, Iceland, Alaska, northern Canada.
- Kp 3 Unsettled eye in Rakvere Bright in the Arctic; low on the horizon in central Scandinavia and southern Iceland.
- Kp 4 Active next 24 h Overhead in the Arctic; low in the north from southern Norway, Sweden, Finland and northern Scotland.
- Kp 5 Minor storm (G1) Scotland, southern Scandinavia, the Baltic states, the northern US states and southern Canada.
- Kp 6 Moderate storm (G2) Northern England, Denmark, northern Germany and Poland, the US Midwest — often clearer in photos than to the eye.
- Kp 7 Strong storm (G3) Most of the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Czechia; red glow in photos from France and the northern Alps.
- Kp 8 Severe storm (G4) Central Europe to the eye; red sky in photos from northern Italy, Spain, the Balkans and Turkey's Black Sea coast.
- Kp 9 Extreme storm (G5) Seen across Europe and the US; in photos as far south as the Mediterranean, Turkey and North Africa (May 2024).
Light pollution
Suburban sky. Noticeable sky glow. Bright displays are visible, but driving out of town makes a clear difference.
A noticeably darker area starts about 5 km to the north-west. Open in OpenStreetMap
Estimate from NASA VIIRS night-light data (sky-glow model within 50 km). Check access and private land before you go.
Hills and mountains
The horizon towards the north is open (terrain below 0.0°), so low aurora is not blocked.
From elevation data (AWS Terrain Tiles) along seven lines of sight up to 30 km.
Best months to see the aurora in Rakvere
Share of nights 2005–2025 that were dark, active enough here and mostly clear.
March has been the best month (17% of nights), followed by September (17%).
| Month | Good nights | Clear nights | Darkness | Low / high |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| September | 17% | 42% | 7.9 h | 9° / 17°C |
| October | 9% | 25% | 10.6 h | 3° / 9°C |
| November | 4% | 10% | 12.9 h | -1° / 3°C |
| December | 3% | 8% | 14.1 h | -6° / -2°C |
| January | 4% | 9% | 13.4 h | -9° / -4°C |
| February | 7% | 18% | 11.5 h | -10° / -4°C |
| March | 17% | 41% | 9.1 h | -6° / 1°C |
| April | 15% | 57% | 5.6 h | 0° / 8°C |
Darkness through the year
- No full darkness (Sun 12° below the horizon) from 12 May to 31 July — the sky stays too bright for most auroras.
- Next new moon 9 November, next full moon 26 October. The darkest skies are in the week around new moon.
Aurora nights in Rakvere since 1995
Nights when Kp reached 4.7 or more while it was dark here.
Most recent strong nights
- 10 October 2026 · Kp 7.3
- 4 October 2026 · Kp 5.7
- 18 August 2026 · Kp 5.3
- 15 May 2026 · Kp 6.0
- 20 April 2026 · Kp 5.0
- 3 April 2026 · Kp 5.7
- 2 April 2026 · Kp 5.0
- 22 March 2026 · Kp 6.7
Practical information
- Nearest airport
- Lennart Meri Tallinn Airport (TLL) · 87 km
- Typical low / high in March
- -6° / 1°C
- What to wear
- Below freezing at night: thermal layers, a warm jacket, hat, gloves and winter boots. Full clothing guide
- Emergency number
- 112
- Winter driving
- Winter tyres are mandatory 1 Dec – 1 Mar; studded tyres allowed 15 Oct – 31 Mar (to 30 Apr if winter conditions persist), and since Dec 2022 non-studded winter tyres must be Nordic-type. Road conditions: Transpordiamet's Tark Tee portal (https://www.tarktee.ee). Road conditions
- Access to land
- Estonia's everyman's right (igaüheõigus, codified in the Environmental Code) lets you be on unfenced, unposted land day and night regardless of ownership; fenced or signposted private land requires the owner's permission. RMK (State Forest Management Centre) sites are open to the public.
- Weather service
- Estonian Weather Service (Riigi Ilmateenistus)
Questions and answers
What Kp do you need to see the aurora in Rakvere?
From Rakvere the aurora is visible on most active nights — first low to the north, from about Kp 3.
Which way should I look for the aurora in Rakvere?
Face north (about 0° from true north). At Kp 3 the lower edge of the aurora sits roughly 10° above the horizon; stronger activity lifts it higher and further across the sky.
What is the best month to see the aurora in Rakvere?
Over 2005–2025, March gave the best odds in Rakvere (17% of nights dark, active enough and mostly clear), followed by September (17%).
When is the aurora season in Rakvere?
From 12 May to 31 July the sky in Rakvere never gets dark enough. Outside that period the aurora can be seen whenever activity and clouds allow.
Is there much light pollution in Rakvere?
Noticeable sky glow. Bright displays are visible, but driving out of town makes a clear difference. A noticeably darker area starts about 5 km to the north-west.
When was the aurora last possible in Rakvere?
Activity last reached storm level (Kp 5 or more) during darkness in Rakvere on 10 October 2026 (Kp 7.3) — 909 such nights since 1995. Here the aurora also appears on many quieter nights.
Also covered by this forecast
Villages and districts around Rakvere share its forecast: within a few kilometres the sky, the Kp needed and the best direction are the same.
- Rakvere linn 0 km
- Ussimäe 1 km
- Kondivalu 1 km
- Tammikualuse 1 km
- Papiaru 2 km
- Kullaaru 2 km
- Tõrremäe 2 km
- Palermo 2 km
- Lilleoru 2 km
- Ussimäe küla 2 km
- Taaravainu küla 2 km
- Tõrremäe küla 2 km
- Roodevälja 2 km
- Näpi 3 km
- Roodevälja 3 km
- Taaravainu 3 km
- Tobia 3 km
- Tobia küla 3 km
- Näpi alevik 3 km
- Kullaaru küla 3 km
- Piira küla 3 km
- Roodevälja küla 3 km
- Papiaru küla 3 km
- Tõrma 4 km
- Aluvere 4 km
- Päide 4 km
- Lepna 4 km
- Rakvere vald 4 km
- Tobia-Väljataguse 4 km
- Aruküla 4 km
- Lepna alevik 4 km
- Paatna küla 4 km
- Mäetaguse küla 4 km
- Tõrma küla 4 km
- Arkna 5 km
- Kloodi 5 km
- Paatna 5 km
- Karivärava 5 km
- Kommi 5 km
- Mäetaguse 5 km