Finnmark, NorwayMagnetic latitude 67.0°Population 3,52910 m above sea level
Northern lights in Kirkenes
Kirkenes 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
It is still light here. Darkness starts at 18:25.
Updates every minute while this page is open.
Tonight in one minute
Yes — good chance tonight
- Solar activity Strong enough: Kp 2.7 expected, 0 needed here.
- Sky Mostly clear (20% cloud).
- Darkness Dark from 18:25 to 05:06.
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 Possible · Kp 1.7
- 27-day trend Mon 19 2 Possible · Kp 2
- Tue 20 3 Possible · 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 00:30 · Forecast cloud: 20%. · 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 15:43 local time
Excellent chance
Best around 01:00. Forecast max Kp 2.7 (this place needs 0), average cloud 20%.
- Dark enough
- 18:25 – 05:06
- Sunset
- 16:14 · sunrise 07:19
- Moon
- 31%
- 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°)
Clearer skies nearby tonight
Tonight's cloud forecast is similar in every direction within 100 km (20% here), so driving is unlikely to help.
MET Norway forecast at 24 points within 100 km, averaged over the dark hours. Check roads and conditions before driving.
Score = activity (NOAA Kp and OVATION) × clear sky (MET Norway) × darkness × moonlight. Methodology
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What you would see from Kirkenes
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 | Overhead and all around | – | – | – |
| 2 | Overhead, and also to the south | – | – | – |
| 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 Kirkenes 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
Rural to suburban. Some sky glow from nearby lights. Moderate displays are fine; faint ones are easier a few kilometres out.
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 2.8°), 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 Kirkenes
Share of nights 2005–2025 that were dark, active enough here and mostly clear.
September has been the best month (24% of nights), followed by March (18%).
| Month | Good nights | Clear nights | Darkness | Low / high |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| September | 24% | 27% | 5.4 h | 5° / 9°C |
| October | 13% | 13% | 10.3 h | 0° / 3°C |
| November | 13% | 13% | 13.9 h | -5° / -1°C |
| December | 15% | 15% | 15.6 h | -8° / -4°C |
| January | 14% | 14% | 14.9 h | -10° / -5°C |
| February | 11% | 11% | 11.6 h | -10° / -5°C |
| March | 18% | 18% | 7.6 h | -7° / -3°C |
| April | 5% | 20% | 0.9 h | -4° / 0°C |
Darkness through the year
- No full darkness (Sun 12° below the horizon) from 11 April to 1 September — the sky stays too bright for most auroras.
- Midnight sun from 19 May to 24 July.
- Polar night from 29 November to 13 January: 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 Kirkenes 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
- 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
Where to watch near Kirkenes
-
Kirkenes Snowhotel area
A lakeside site outside town, used for aurora tours, away from the town lights. · about 11 km · Open in OpenStreetMap
-
Jarfjordbotn
A dark fjord head east of Kirkenes with open views and very few settlements. · about 20 km · Open in OpenStreetMap
-
Svanvik (Pasvik Valley)
An inland valley of pine forest and lakes, with colder, often clearer skies. · about 40 km · Open in OpenStreetMap
-
Grense Jakobselv
A remote village on the Barents Sea coast at the Russian border, extremely dark. · about 58 km · Open in OpenStreetMap
Local knowledge
- Kirkenes has a more continental climate than the coast further west, with records down to −41.8°C, so clear cold nights are common in winter.
- Polar night runs from about 27 November to 14 January.
- Kirkenes is one end of the Hurtigruten coastal route, and Visit Norway notes that the Tromsø–Kirkenes stretch offers aurora viewing with less light pollution.
- Kirkenes Airport, Høybuktmoen, is about 5 km from town, with daily flights to Oslo and Tromsø.
- The year-round Kirkenes Snowhotel and the forested Pasvik Valley, home to Norway's largest brown bear population, are close by.
Grense Jakobselv and the Pasvik Valley lie on the Norway–Russia border; there is no public crossing, and special conduct rules apply in the border area.
Extreme cold is possible inland, so carry winter survival gear in the car.
Practical information
- Nearest airport
- Kirkenes Airport, Høybuktmoen (KKN) · 6 km
- Typical low / high in September
- 5° / 9°C
- What to wear
- Cool nights: layers, a windproof jacket, hat and gloves for standing still outside. Full clothing guide
- Emergency number
- 112 (police), 113 (ambulance), 110 (fire)
- Winter driving
- Winter tyres need at least 3 mm of tread from 1 November to the first Sunday after Easter Monday (16 October to 30 April in Nordland, Troms and Finnmark). Studded tyres are allowed in the same periods and outside them when conditions require. Road conditions are on Statens vegvesen's traffic information service (vegvesen.no/trafikk). Road conditions
- Access to land
- Allemannsretten gives free access to uncultivated land (utmark) such as forest, mountain and shoreline; cultivated land and yards (innmark) need the owner's consent. Overnight stays, including tents, motorhomes and vans, must be more than 150 m from an inhabited house or cabin, and you may stay at most two nights in one spot without permission.
- Official space-weather service
- Norwegian Centre for Space Weather (NOSWE), Tromsø Geophysical Observatory, UiT
- Weather service
- Norwegian Meteorological Institute (Yr)
Questions and answers
What Kp do you need to see the aurora in Kirkenes?
Kirkenes 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 Kirkenes?
Around Kirkenes the aurora is often right overhead. Start by facing north, but look up and all around — in strong storms it can fill the whole sky and even appear behind you.
What is the best month to see the aurora in Kirkenes?
Over 2005–2025, September gave the best odds in Kirkenes (24% of nights dark, active enough and mostly clear), followed by March (18%).
When is the aurora season in Kirkenes?
From 11 April to 1 September the sky in Kirkenes never gets dark enough. Outside that period the aurora can be seen whenever activity and clouds allow.
Is there much light pollution in Kirkenes?
Some sky glow from nearby lights. Moderate displays are fine; faint ones are easier a few kilometres out.
When was the aurora last possible in Kirkenes?
Activity last reached storm level (Kp 5 or more) during darkness in Kirkenes on 10 October 2026 (Kp 7.3) — 737 such nights since 1995. Here the aurora also appears on many quieter nights.
Also covered by this forecast
Villages and districts around Kirkenes share its forecast: within a few kilometres the sky, the Kp needed and the best direction are the same.
- Sør-Varanger 0 km
- Ytre Lid 3 km
- Svartaksla 4 km
- Høybukta 6 km
- Ropelv 7 km
- Lille Ropelv 8 km
- Reinøysund 9 km
- Steinskjærnes 9 km
- Lonkuselv 11 km
- Jarfjordbotn 12 km
- Pandurnes 13 km
- Kjerrisneset 14 km
- Karpbukt 15 km
- Tårnet 16 km
- Laanapukta 16 km
- Storbukt 17 km
- Storbukt 17 km
- Vintervollen 17 km
- Grense Jakobselv 31 km