Troms, NorwayMagnetic latitude 66.7°Population 1,0761 m above sea level
Northern lights in Storsteinnes
Storsteinnes 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
Activity is high enough here right now, but the sky is overcast (91 % cloud). Watch for gaps in the clouds and look north.
Magnetometer at Kilpisjärvi (65 km away): low magnetic activity.
Updates every minute while this page is open. Ground data: FMI MIRACLE R-index (CC BY 4.0).
Tonight in one minute
Not tonight
- Solar activity Strong enough: Kp 4 expected, 0 needed here.
- Sky Overcast (93% cloud).
- Darkness Dark from 19:04 to 05:54.
What to do: Not tonight — your next chance is shown just below.
- Detailed forecast Fri 16 4 Possible · Kp 4
- Sat 17 2 Possible · Kp 2
- Sun 18 1.7 Possible · Kp 1.7
- Mon 19 2.7 Possible · Kp 2.7
- 27-day trend 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
Tuesday 20 October — Possible · Kp 3 · best around 23:30 · Forecast cloud: 79%. · Reliability: low (rough trend)
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 03:54 local time
Unlikely
Best around 03:00. Forecast max Kp 4.0 (this place needs 0), average cloud 93%.
- Dark enough
- 19:04 – 05:54
- Sunset
- 16:55 · sunrise 08:04
- Moon
- 35%
- 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 | Sat, 03 | Sat, 18 | Sat, 21 | Sun, 00 | Sun, 03 | Sun, 06 | Sun, 20 | Sun, 23 | Mon, 02 | Mon, 05 | Mon, 19 | Mon, 22 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Low cloud | 88% | 90% | 84% | 90% | 87% | 85% | 93% | 87% | 89% | 85% | 100% | 100% |
| Mid cloud | 56% | 54% | 38% | 42% | 25% | 2% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 34% | 100% | 100% |
| High cloud | 0% | 1% | 0% | 10% | 87% | 99% | 0% | 3% | 91% | 100% | 95% | 72% |
| Temperature | 4 °C | 3 °C | 3 °C | 3 °C | 3 °C | 3 °C | 7 °C | 7 °C | 8 °C | 9 °C | 9 °C | 11 °C |
| Feels like | 0 °C | -1 °C | -1 °C | -1 °C | 0 °C | 0 °C | 5 °C | 3 °C | 6 °C | 6 °C | 6 °C | 11 °C |
| Wind | 5 m/s | 4 m/s | 3 m/s | 4 m/s | 3 m/s | 4 m/s | 3 m/s | 7 m/s | 4 m/s | 5 m/s | 9 m/s | 8 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 Troms. Reports from real visitors move a place up the live ranking.
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Live webcams near Storsteinnes
Check the sky for yourself: public cameras within 300 km. They open on the camera owner's website.
- Tromsø (Ramfjordmoen) all-sky camera (opens in a new tab) All-sky
- Fjellheisen, Tromsø (360° panorama) (opens in a new tab) Scenic
- Skibotn all-sky camera (opens in a new tab) All-sky
- Skibotn colour all-sky camera (BACC #5) (opens in a new tab) All-sky
- Tromsø city (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 Storsteinnes
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 Storsteinnes 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
Pristine dark sky. Almost no artificial light: faint aurora and the Milky Way are easy to see.
Estimate from NASA VIIRS night-light data (sky-glow model within 50 km). Check access and private land before you go.
Hills and mountains
Terrain is not modelled for this place.
From elevation data (AWS Terrain Tiles) along seven lines of sight up to 30 km.
Best months to see the aurora in Storsteinnes
Share of nights 2005–2025 that were dark, active enough here and mostly clear.
September has been the best month (27% of nights), followed by October (20%).
| Month | Good nights | Clear nights | Darkness | Low / high |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| September | 27% | 27% | 5.6 h | 3° / 8°C |
| October | 20% | 20% | 10.4 h | -3° / 1°C |
| November | 19% | 19% | 13.9 h | -8° / -4°C |
| December | 18% | 18% | 15.6 h | -11° / -6°C |
| January | 20% | 20% | 14.6 h | -13° / -8°C |
| February | 18% | 18% | 11.5 h | -13° / -7°C |
| March | 15% | 15% | 7.8 h | -11° / -4°C |
| April | 7% | 20% | 1.1 h | -7° / -1°C |
Darkness through the year
- No full darkness (Sun 12° below the horizon) from 12 April to 30 August — the sky stays too bright for most auroras.
- Midnight sun from 21 May to 22 July.
- Polar night from 2 December to 10 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 Storsteinnes 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
Practical information
- Nearest airport
- Bardufoss Airport (BDU) · 34 km
Tromsø Airport (TOS) · 51 km - Typical low / high in September
- 3° / 8°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 Storsteinnes?
Storsteinnes 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 Storsteinnes?
Around Storsteinnes 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 Storsteinnes?
Over 2005–2025, September gave the best odds in Storsteinnes (27% of nights dark, active enough and mostly clear), followed by October (20%).
When is the aurora season in Storsteinnes?
From 12 April to 30 August the sky in Storsteinnes never gets dark enough. Outside that period the aurora can be seen whenever activity and clouds allow.
Is there much light pollution in Storsteinnes?
Almost no artificial light: faint aurora and the Milky Way are easy to see.
When was the aurora last possible in Storsteinnes?
Activity last reached storm level (Kp 5 or more) during darkness in Storsteinnes on 10 October 2026 (Kp 7.0) — 739 such nights since 1995. Here the aurora also appears on many quieter nights.
Also covered by this forecast
Villages and districts around Storsteinnes share its forecast: within a few kilometres the sky, the Kp needed and the best direction are the same.
- Balsfjord 0 km
- Markenes 4 km
- Tennes 8 km
- Hamnnes 8 km
- Rakeljorda 9 km
- Strupen 10 km
- Nordfjordbotn 10 km
- Balsfjord 10 km
- Melen 10 km
- Sandøyra 11 km
- Nordfjord 11 km
- Indre Slettmo 11 km
- Sletta 12 km
- Middagsbukta 12 km
- Lakseid 12 km
- Fredheim 12 km
- Eliasnes 12 km
- Tomasjord 13 km
- Skogeng 13 km
- Gárgán 13 km
- Indre Tomasjord 13 km
- Vollan 13 km
- Bjørkli 15 km
- Kantornes 15 km
- Stålvikbotn 16 km
- Mestervik 16 km
- Lanes 16 km
- Laksvatn 16 km
- Lavangen 16 km
- Skáidi 16 km
- Storsteinnes 17 km
- Lingrasmo 20 km
- Bjørkli 20 km
- Øvre Takelvdal 20 km
- Skjold 24 km
- Holt 26 km
- Hektoen 27 km
- Bergset 27 km
- Tillermoen 28 km
- Lauvhaugen 28 km