Lapland, FinlandMagnetic latitude 64.6°Population 3,952153 m above sea level
Northern lights in Kolari
Kolari sits right under the auroral oval: on clear, dark nights the aurora is often overhead, even when activity is quiet. Clouds matter far more than the Kp number here.
Right now
The aurora may be in view right now — go outside and look north!
Magnetometer at Pello (50 km away): high chance of aurora right now.
Updates every minute while this page is open. Ground data: FMI MIRACLE R-index (CC BY 4.0).
Tonight in one minute
Yes — good chance tonight
- Solar activity Strong enough: Kp 2.7 expected, 0 needed here.
- Sky Mostly clear (1% cloud).
- Darkness Dark from 19:48 to 06:34.
What to do: Go somewhere dark around 01:00, give your eyes 15 minutes to adjust and look north, low over the horizon.
- Detailed forecast Fri 16 2.7 Good chance · Kp 2.7
- Sat 17 1.7 Good chance · Kp 1.7
- Sun 18 1.7 Good chance · Kp 1.7
- 27-day trend Mon 19 2 Possible · Kp 2
- Tue 20 3 Good chance · Kp 3
- Wed 21 4 Possible · Kp 4
- Thu 22 4 Possible · Kp 4
- Fri 23 4 Possible · Kp 4
- Sat 24 3 Possible · Kp 3
- Sun 25 2 Possible · Kp 2
- Mon 26 2 Possible · Kp 2
- Tue 27 2 Possible · Kp 2
- Wed 28 2 Possible · Kp 2
- Thu 29 2 Possible · Kp 2
- Fri 30 5 Possible · Kp 5
- Sat 31 5 Possible · Kp 5
- Sun 1 5 Possible · Kp 5
- Mon 2 3 Possible · Kp 3
- Tue 3 2 Possible · Kp 2
- Wed 4 2 Possible · Kp 2
- Thu 5 3 Possible · Kp 3
- Fri 6 3 Possible · Kp 3
- Sat 7 3 Possible · Kp 3
Saturday 17 October — Good chance · Kp 2.7 · best around 01:30 · Forecast cloud: 1%. · 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 23:04 local time
Excellent chance
Best around 01:00. Forecast max Kp 2.7 (this place needs 0), average cloud 1%.
- Dark enough
- 19:48 – 06:34
- Sunset
- 17:50 · sunrise 08:32
- Moon
- 33%
- Kp neededKp index: a 0–9 measure of geomagnetic activity. The higher it is, the further from the poles the aurora reaches.
- Kp 0
- Look towards
- north (356°)
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 | Fri, 23 | Sat, 02 | Sat, 05 | Sat, 20 | Sat, 23 | Sun, 02 | Sun, 05 | Sun, 20 | Sun, 23 | Mon, 02 | Mon, 05 | Mon, 20 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Temperature | 5 °C | 2 °C | 1 °C | 3 °C | 0 °C | -1 °C | -1 °C | 0 °C | 0 °C | -1 °C | -1 °C | 5 °C |
| Feels like | 2 °C | -1 °C | -2 °C | -1 °C | -1 °C | -3 °C | -1 °C | -2 °C | -3 °C | -3 °C | -4 °C | 1 °C |
| Wind | 4 m/s | 3 m/s | 2 m/s | 5 m/s | 2 m/s | 2 m/s | 1 m/s | 2 m/s | 2 m/s | 2 m/s | 2 m/s | 6 m/s |
Cloud layers and weather: MET Norway (CC BY 4.0).
Score = activity (NOAA Kp and OVATION) × clear sky (MET Norway) × darkness × moonlight. Methodology
Seeing it right now?
Tell others in Lapland. Reports from real visitors move a place up the live ranking.
Reports are anonymous: we do not store your IP address or location. One report per place every few hours.
Live webcams near Kolari
Check the sky for yourself: public cameras within 300 km. They open on the camera owner's website.
- Ylläs (opens in a new tab) Scenic
- Levi ski resort (opens in a new tab) Scenic
- Muonio all-sky camera (opens in a new tab) All-sky
- Sodankylä all-sky camera (opens in a new tab) All-sky
- Rovaniemi (opens in a new tab) Scenic
These cameras belong to their owners — we only link to them. Most show little in daylight or under cloud, and some pause in summer.
What you would see from Kolari
Facing north. Bands show where the aurora sits at two activity levels.
| Kp | What you see | Lower edge | Ray tops | Distance to the aurora |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | Visible to the north | 25° | 42° | 211 km |
| 2 | Overhead and all around | – | – | – |
| 3 | Overhead, and also to the south | – | – | – |
| 4 | Overhead, and also to the south | – | – | – |
| 5 | Overhead, and also to the south | – | – | – |
| 6 | Overhead, and also to the south | – | – | – |
| 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 eye in Kolari Only under the auroral oval: northern Norway, Swedish and Finnish Lapland, Iceland, Alaska, northern Canada.
- Kp 3 Unsettled next 24 h Bright in the Arctic; low on the horizon in central Scandinavia and southern Iceland.
- Kp 4 Active 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
Dark rural sky. Little artificial light. Faint displays are visible once your eyes have adapted.
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 0.4°), 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 Kolari
Share of nights 2005–2025 that were dark, active enough here and mostly clear.
September has been the best month (40% of nights), followed by March (34%).
| Month | Good nights | Clear nights | Darkness | Low / high |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| September | 40% | 40% | 6.1 h | 5° / 11°C |
| October | 21% | 21% | 10.4 h | -1° / 3°C |
| November | 25% | 25% | 13.8 h | -9° / -4°C |
| December | 19% | 19% | 15.1 h | -14° / -7°C |
| January | 25% | 25% | 14.5 h | -16° / -10°C |
| February | 26% | 26% | 11.5 h | -15° / -9°C |
| March | 34% | 34% | 8.0 h | -11° / -4°C |
| April | 20% | 48% | 1.9 h | -5° / 1°C |
Darkness through the year
- No full darkness (Sun 12° below the horizon) from 16 April to 26 August — the sky stays too bright for most auroras.
- Midnight sun from 30 May to 14 July.
- Polar night from 19 December to 24 December: the sun stays below the horizon, giving the longest viewing windows.
- Next new moon 9 November, next full moon 26 October. The darkest skies are in the week around new moon.
Aurora nights in Kolari since 1995
Nights when Kp reached 4.7 or more while it was dark here.
Most recent strong nights
- 10 October 2026 · Kp 7.0
- 4 October 2026 · Kp 5.7
- 3 April 2026 · Kp 5.7
- 2 April 2026 · Kp 5.0
- 22 March 2026 · Kp 6.7
- 20 March 2026 · Kp 7.0
- 13 March 2026 · Kp 6.0
- 3 March 2026 · Kp 5.0
Practical information
- Nearest airport
- Pajala Airport (PJA) · 32 km
Kittilä International Airport (KTT) · 61 km - Typical low / high in September
- 5° / 11°C
- What to wear
- Cool nights: layers, a windproof jacket, hat and gloves for standing still outside. Full clothing guide
- Emergency number
- 112
- Winter driving
- Winter tyres are mandatory from 1 November to 31 March when weather or road conditions require them. Minimum tread is 3 mm, and since December 2024 non-studded winter tyres need the three-peak mountain snowflake symbol. Studded tyres may be used from 1 November to 31 March or until the Monday after Easter. Fintraffic's Liikennetilanne (Traffic Situation) service shows road conditions and road weather cameras. Road conditions
- Access to land
- Everyman's right (jokamiehenoikeus) lets anyone move about, and camp or stay temporarily, in the countryside regardless of who owns it, without permission. It does not cover yards, cultivated land or other specially designated areas, nor activities that damage nature or disturb others.
- Official space-weather service
- Finnish Meteorological Institute: Auroras and space weather · FMI Auroras Now! (all-sky cameras) · ISES RWC Finland (FMI)
- Weather service
- Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI)
Questions and answers
What Kp do you need to see the aurora in Kolari?
Kolari sits right under the auroral oval: on clear, dark nights the aurora is often overhead, even when activity is quiet. Clouds matter far more than the Kp number here.
Which way should I look for the aurora in Kolari?
Face north (about 356° from true north). At Kp 0 the lower edge of the aurora sits roughly 25° above the horizon; stronger activity lifts it higher and further across the sky.
What is the best month to see the aurora in Kolari?
Over 2005–2025, September gave the best odds in Kolari (40% of nights dark, active enough and mostly clear), followed by March (34%).
When is the aurora season in Kolari?
From 16 April to 26 August the sky in Kolari never gets dark enough. Outside that period the aurora can be seen whenever activity and clouds allow.
Is there much light pollution in Kolari?
Little artificial light. Faint displays are visible once your eyes have adapted.
When was the aurora last possible in Kolari?
Activity last reached storm level (Kp 5 or more) during darkness in Kolari on 10 October 2026 (Kp 7.0) — 767 such nights since 1995. Here the aurora also appears on many quieter nights.
Also covered by this forecast
Villages and districts around Kolari share its forecast: within a few kilometres the sky, the Kp needed and the best direction are the same.
- Jokijalka 1 km
- Palosaajo 3 km
- Ylläsjokisuu 3 km
- Kolarinsaari 4 km
- Saaripudas 7 km
- Rito-oja 8 km
- Pohjasenvaara 9 km
- Teurajärvi 11 km
- Luovatus 12 km
- Äkäsjokisuu 13 km
- Kalkkikangas 13 km
- Kattilamaa 14 km
- Venetti 15 km
- Laajala 15 km
- Kolari 17 km
- Aarea 18 km
- Venejärvi 20 km
- Vaattojärvi 20 km
- Liikamaa 20 km
- Sieppijärvi 22 km
- Välimaa 23 km
- Männistönpää 23 km
- Poikkijärvi 23 km
- Männistönperä 24 km
- Järvirova 24 km
- Männistö 25 km
- Hietanen 25 km
- Koivulanpää 26 km
- Kaalamaniemi 26 km
- Temppeliharju 28 km
- Asumamaa 29 km
- Rovanpää 32 km