Nordland, NorwayMagnetic latitude 66.0°Population 14,141100 m above sea level
Northern lights in Narvik
Narvik 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 19:14.
Updates every minute while this page is open.
Tonight in one minute
Not tonight
- Solar activity Strong enough: Kp 2.7 expected, 0 needed here.
- Sky Overcast (95% cloud).
- Darkness Dark from 19:14 to 05:58.
What to do: Not tonight — your next chance is shown just below.
- Detailed forecast Fri 16 2.7 Possible · Kp 2.7
- Sat 17 1.7 Possible · 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 Good chance · 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
Sunday 18 October — Possible · Kp 1.7 · best around 00:30 · Forecast cloud: 84%. · Reliability: medium
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
Unlikely
Best around 01:00. Forecast max Kp 2.7 (this place needs 0), average cloud 95%.
- Dark enough
- 19:14 – 05:58
- Sunset
- 17:10 · sunrise 08:03
- 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 (354°)
Clearer skies nearby tonight
Forecast cloud during tonight's darkness: 95% here. The clearest option within 100 km is about 100 km to the south-east, with 68%. Open in OpenStreetMap
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 Narvik
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 | 62° | 74° | 56 km |
| 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 Narvik 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
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 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 Narvik
Share of nights 2005–2025 that were dark, active enough here and mostly clear.
January has been the best month (25% of nights), followed by September (25%).
| Month | Good nights | Clear nights | Darkness | Low / high |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| September | 25% | 25% | 5.8 h | 3° / 8°C |
| October | 25% | 25% | 10.4 h | -3° / 1°C |
| November | 24% | 24% | 13.8 h | -8° / -3°C |
| December | 24% | 24% | 15.6 h | -11° / -6°C |
| January | 25% | 25% | 14.5 h | -12° / -7°C |
| February | 23% | 23% | 11.5 h | -12° / -7°C |
| March | 18% | 18% | 7.9 h | -11° / -4°C |
| April | 9% | 21% | 1.4 h | -6° / -1°C |
Darkness through the year
- No full darkness (Sun 12° below the horizon) from 13 April to 29 August — the sky stays too bright for most auroras.
- Midnight sun from 24 May to 19 July.
- Polar night from 5 December to 6 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 Narvik 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
- 22 March 2026 · Kp 6.7
- 20 March 2026 · Kp 7.0
- 13 March 2026 · Kp 6.0
- 3 March 2026 · Kp 5.0
- 22 February 2026 · Kp 5.3
Where to watch near Narvik
-
Narvikfjellet
The cable car lifts you above the town lights for a wide view over the Ofotfjord. · about 3 km · Open in OpenStreetMap
-
Rombaksbrua
The E6 bridge over Rombaksfjorden, where fjord-side stopping places give open views away from the town. · about 14 km · Open in OpenStreetMap
-
Bjørnfjell
A high mountain plateau on the E10 near the Swedish border, with almost no artificial light and often a different weather pattern from the coast. · about 41 km · Open in OpenStreetMap
Local knowledge
- From the top of Narvikfjellet, reached by cable car right beside the town, you can watch the northern lights in winter over the Ofotfjord.
- Narvik's climate is boreal (Köppen Dfc), with fairly cold winters that are mild for a place about 220 km inside the Arctic Circle; inland toward the Swedish border it gets colder and often clearer.
- Harstad/Narvik Airport, Evenes, is 57 km (about an hour) by road, and the Ofoten Line runs trains to Kiruna in Sweden in about 2.5 hours.
- The Narvik Winter Festival (Vinterfestuka) is held in early March.
- Narvikfjellet is a major ski resort and will host the 2029 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships.
The E10 over Bjørnfjell is an exposed mountain road and conditions change quickly in winter storms; check road status at vegvesen.no before driving.
The mountains around Narvik are steep avalanche terrain; check varsom.no before leaving marked pistes or roads.
Practical information
- Nearest airport
- Harstad/Narvik Airport (EVE) · 31 km
- Typical low / high in January
- -12° / -7°C
- What to wear
- Arctic cold: wool base layers, insulated jacket and trousers, warm boots, hat and mittens. 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 Narvik?
Narvik 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 Narvik?
Face north (about 354° from true north). At Kp 0 the lower edge of the aurora sits roughly 62° above the horizon; stronger activity lifts it higher and further across the sky.
What is the best month to see the aurora in Narvik?
Over 2005–2025, January gave the best odds in Narvik (25% of nights dark, active enough and mostly clear), followed by September (25%).
When is the aurora season in Narvik?
From 13 April to 29 August the sky in Narvik never gets dark enough. Outside that period the aurora can be seen whenever activity and clouds allow.
Is there much light pollution in Narvik?
Strong sky glow washes out faint aurora. Head out of town for anything but a bright display.
When was the aurora last possible in Narvik?
Activity last reached storm level (Kp 5 or more) during darkness in Narvik on 10 October 2026 (Kp 7.0) — 755 such nights since 1995. Here the aurora also appears on many quieter nights.
Also covered by this forecast
Villages and districts around Narvik share its forecast: within a few kilometres the sky, the Kp needed and the best direction are the same.
- Taraldsvik 1 km
- Oskarsborg 1 km
- Frydenlund 1 km
- Framnes 1 km
- Finnbekken 1 km
- Vassvik 1 km
- Furumoen 1 km
- Trekanten 1 km
- Nyborg 3 km
- Fagernes 3 km
- Ankenes 3 km
- Holmen 3 km
- Orhaugen 3 km
- Haugen 3 km
- Laukvik 4 km
- Kvitsandøyra 4 km
- Øyjorda 5 km
- Søndre Håkvik 7 km
- Skjomnes 8 km
- Marka 8 km
- Fagerjorda 8 km
- Beisfjord 10 km
- Hergotta 11 km
- Nygård 12 km
- Tyttebærvik 12 km
- Vidrek 13 km
- Kongsbakk 13 km
- Botn 14 km
- Østervik 16 km
- Forra 16 km
- Saltvika 17 km
- Lenvika 17 km
- Råna 19 km
- Evenes 20 km
- Bogen 20 km
- Evenes 20 km
- Lakså 22 km
- Arnes 22 km
- Dragvika 22 km
- Lidaláddi 23 km