Nordland, NorwayMagnetic latitude 63.9°Population 18,86640 m above sea level
Northern lights in Mo i Rana
From Mo i Rana the aurora can show up on almost any clear, dark night — low to the north when activity is quiet, higher and overhead when it picks up. Since 1995 storms of Kp 4.7 or more reached this place during darkness on 785 nights.
Right now
It is still light here. Darkness starts at 19:08.
Magnetometer at Kilpisjärvi (414 km away): moderate magnetic activity, aurora likely under a dark, clear sky.
Updates every minute while this page is open. Ground data: FMI MIRACLE R-index (CC BY 4.0).
Tonight in one minute
Maybe — worth a look
- Solar activity Strong enough: Kp 3.7 expected, 0 needed here.
- Sky Partly cloudy (61% cloud) — look for gaps.
- Darkness Dark from 19:08 to 06:29. A bright moon (77%) washes out faint displays.
What to do: Go somewhere dark around 05:00, give your eyes 15 minutes to adjust and look north, low over the horizon.
Thursday 22 October — Possible · Kp 3.7 · best around 06:00 · Forecast cloud: 64%. · 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 14:51 local time
Excellent chance
Best around 05:00. Forecast max Kp 3.7 (this place needs 0), average cloud 61%.
- Dark enough
- 19:08 – 06:29
- Sunset
- 17:13 · sunrise 08:24
- Moon
- 77% · ↑ 16:59 · ↓ 02:10
- 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 (354°)
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 | Wed, 19 | Wed, 22 | Thu, 01 | Thu, 04 | Thu, 19 | Thu, 22 | Fri, 01 | Fri, 04 | Fri, 18 | Fri, 21 | Sat, 00 | Sat, 03 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Low cloud | 60% | 67% | 51% | 45% | 39% | 38% | 35% | 33% | 37% | 37% | 38% | 38% |
| Mid cloud | 95% | 77% | 13% | 0% | 21% | 10% | 29% | 32% | 30% | 40% | 85% | 95% |
| High cloud | 1% | 0% | 0% | 7% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 4% | 22% | 26% |
| Temperature | 6 °C | 5 °C | 5 °C | 5 °C | 8 °C | 7 °C | 7 °C | 7 °C | 8 °C | 8 °C | 7 °C | 7 °C |
| Feels like | 3 °C | 3 °C | 2 °C | 3 °C | 6 °C | 5 °C | 5 °C | 5 °C | 7 °C | 6 °C | 6 °C | 6 °C |
| Wind | 3 m/s | 3 m/s | 3 m/s | 3 m/s | 3 m/s | 3 m/s | 3 m/s | 3 m/s | 2 m/s | 2 m/s | 2 m/s | 2 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 Mo i Rana
The aurora only shows through clear skies, so the weather matters as much as the Kp index. Here is the general forecast for Mo i Rana: temperature, wind and the chance of rain for the coming days.
Planning further ahead? See the hour-by-hour weather forecast for Mo i Rana on Atlas of Seasons.
Seeing it right now?
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Live webcams near Mo i Rana
Check the sky for yourself: public cameras within 300 km. They open on the camera owner's website.
- Bodø ↗ Open the live camera (opens in a new tab) Scenic
- Lofoten – Sørvågen ↗ Open the live camera (opens in a new tab) Scenic
- Lofoten – Reine ↗ Open the live camera (opens in a new tab) Scenic
- Lofoten – Hamnøy ↗ Open the live camera (opens in a new tab) Scenic
- Lofoten – Henningsvær ↗ Open the live camera (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.
Do you host guests in Mo i Rana? Give them a free aurora forecast page and a QR poster for your property. Create a guest page →
What you would see from Mo i Rana
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 | 19° | 33° | 289 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 Mo i Rana Only under the auroral oval: northern Norway, Swedish and Finnish Lapland, Iceland, Alaska, northern Canada.
- Kp 3 Unsettled 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
Bright suburban sky. Strong sky glow washes out faint aurora. Head out of town for anything but a bright display.
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 terrain rises to about 4° above the horizon towards the north. That hides low aurora: here you need about Kp 0 instead of Kp 0. A hilltop, shore or open field with a clear view to the north helps.
From elevation data (AWS Terrain Tiles) along seven lines of sight up to 30 km.
Best months to see the aurora in Mo i Rana
Share of nights 2005–2025 that were dark, active enough here and mostly clear.
March has been the best month (29% of nights), followed by December (26%).
| Month | Good nights | Clear nights | Darkness | Low / high |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| September | 24% | 24% | 6.4 h | 5° / 10°C |
| October | 16% | 16% | 10.5 h | -1° / 3°C |
| November | 24% | 24% | 13.5 h | -7° / -2°C |
| December | 26% | 26% | 15.1 h | -10° / -5°C |
| January | 25% | 25% | 14.1 h | -11° / -6°C |
| February | 26% | 26% | 11.5 h | -11° / -5°C |
| March | 29% | 29% | 8.1 h | -9° / -3°C |
| April | 13% | 27% | 2.1 h | -5° / 0°C |
Darkness through the year
- No full darkness (Sun 12° below the horizon) from 19 April to 23 August — the sky stays too bright for most auroras.
- Midnight sun from 6 June to 6 July.
- Next new moon 9 November, next full moon 26 October. The darkest skies are in the week around new moon.
Aurora nights in Mo i Rana 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
- Mo i Rana Airport, Røssvoll (MQN) · 9 km
Bodø Airport (BOO) · 107 km - Typical low / high in March
- -9° / -3°C
- What to wear
- Below freezing at night: thermal layers, a warm jacket, hat, gloves and winter boots. 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 Mo i Rana?
From Mo i Rana the aurora can show up on almost any clear, dark night — low to the north when activity is quiet, higher and overhead when it picks up.
Which way should I look for the aurora in Mo i Rana?
Face north (about 354° from true north). At Kp 0 the lower edge of the aurora sits roughly 19° above the horizon; stronger activity lifts it higher and further across the sky.
What is the best month to see the aurora in Mo i Rana?
Over 2005–2025, March gave the best odds in Mo i Rana (29% of nights dark, active enough and mostly clear), followed by December (26%).
When is the aurora season in Mo i Rana?
From 19 April to 23 August the sky in Mo i Rana never gets dark enough. Outside that period the aurora can be seen whenever activity and clouds allow.
Is there much light pollution in Mo i Rana?
Strong sky glow washes out faint aurora. Head out of town for anything but a bright display.
When was the aurora last possible in Mo i Rana?
Activity last reached storm level (Kp 5 or more) during darkness in Mo i Rana on 10 October 2026 (Kp 7.0) — 785 such nights since 1995. Here the aurora also appears on many quieter nights.
Also covered by this forecast
Villages and districts around Mo i Rana share its forecast: within a few kilometres the sky, the Kp needed and the best direction are the same.
- Rana 0 km
- Tverrånes 1 km
- Revlen 1 km
- Gullsmedvika 1 km
- Selfors 2 km
- Grubben 2 km
- Langneset 2 km
- Ytteren 3 km
- Enge 3 km
- Båsmoen 3 km
- Selforssjøen 3 km
- Yttraheia 4 km
- Almlia 4 km
- Åenget 4 km
- Sigridplassen 4 km
- Tofta 5 km
- Yttralenninga 6 km
- Store Alteren 6 km
- Jamtlia 7 km
- Storsteinlia 8 km
- Litle Altermark 8 km
- Sletten 9 km
- Reinforsheia 9 km
- Litle Alteren 9 km
- Villen 10 km
- Store Granheia 10 km
- Skonseng 10 km
- Røssvoll 10 km
- Bjørnvassdalen 10 km
- Illgruben 10 km
- Bustnes 12 km
- Skamdal 13 km
- Raudsandaksla 14 km
- Ramnåa 14 km
- Jamtjorda 15 km
- Medstraum 16 km
- Storforshei 20 km
- Store Bjerka 22 km
- Eiteråga 25 km
- Tverrå 29 km