Västerbotten County, SwedenMagnetic latitude 62.1°Population 1,661226 m above sea level
Northern lights in Boliden
From Boliden 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 809 nights.
Right now
It is still light here. Darkness starts at 18:56.
Magnetometer at Pello (282 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
Yes — good chance tonight
- Solar activity Strong enough: Kp 2 expected, 0 needed here.
- Sky Mostly clear (3% cloud).
- Darkness Dark from 18:56 to 05:52.
What to do: Go somewhere dark around 22:00, give your eyes 15 minutes to adjust and look north, low over the horizon.
- Detailed forecast Sat 17 2 Good chance · Kp 2
- Sun 18 1.7 Good chance · Kp 1.7
- Mon 19 2.7 Good chance · Kp 2.7
- 27-day trend 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 Good chance · Kp 2
- Fri 30 5 Good chance · Kp 5
- Sat 31 5 Good chance · Kp 5
- Sun 1 5 Good chance · Kp 5
- Mon 2 3 Good chance · Kp 3
- Tue 3 2 Good chance · Kp 2
- Wed 4 2 Good chance · Kp 2
- Thu 5 3 Good chance · Kp 3
- Fri 6 3 Good chance · Kp 3
- Sat 7 3 Good chance · Kp 3
Saturday 17 October — Good chance · Kp 2 · best around 21:30 · Forecast cloud: 4%. · 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 07:03 local time
Excellent chance
Best around 22:00. Forecast max Kp 2.0 (this place needs 0), average cloud 3%.
- Dark enough
- 18:56 – 05:52
- Sunset
- 17:09 · sunrise 07:40
- Moon
- 36%
- 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 | Sat, 18 | Sat, 21 | Sun, 00 | Sun, 03 | Sun, 18 | Sun, 21 | Mon, 00 | Mon, 03 | Mon, 18 | Mon, 21 | Tue, 00 | Tue, 03 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Low cloud | 0% | 0% | 0% | 2% | 2% | 2% | 1% | 0% | 2% | 1% | 0% | 0% |
| Mid cloud | 0% | 4% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| High cloud | 6% | 0% | 0% | 49% | 27% | 2% | 1% | 3% | 16% | 68% | 42% | 4% |
| Temperature | 3 °C | 2 °C | 1 °C | -1 °C | 2 °C | 1 °C | 1 °C | 1 °C | 6 °C | 5 °C | 4 °C | 4 °C |
| Feels like | -1 °C | -2 °C | -2 °C | -4 °C | -1 °C | -2 °C | -3 °C | -3 °C | 1 °C | 0 °C | -1 °C | -1 °C |
| Wind | 3 m/s | 4 m/s | 2 m/s | 2 m/s | 1 m/s | 2 m/s | 3 m/s | 3 m/s | 5 m/s | 5 m/s | 5 m/s | 5 m/s |
| Visibility | 50 km | 50 km | 50 km | 50 km | 50 km | 50 km | 50 km | 50 km | 50 km | 50 km | 50 km | 50 km |
Cloud layers and weather: Open-Meteo (CC BY 4.0).
Score = activity (NOAA Kp and OVATION) × clear sky (MET Norway) × darkness × moonlight. Methodology
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What you would see from Boliden
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 | 10° | 20° | 489 km |
| 2 | Visible to the north | 67° | 77° | 44 km |
| 3 | Overhead and all around | – | – | – |
| 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 Boliden 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.
A noticeably darker area starts about 5 km to the west-north-west. Open in OpenStreetMap
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 0.8°), 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 Boliden
Share of nights 2005–2025 that were dark, active enough here and mostly clear.
March has been the best month (49% of nights), followed by September (46%).
| Month | Good nights | Clear nights | Darkness | Low / high |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| September | 46% | 46% | 6.9 h | 5° / 12°C |
| October | 38% | 38% | 10.5 h | 0° / 4°C |
| November | 37% | 37% | 13.3 h | -7° / -2°C |
| December | 35% | 35% | 14.6 h | -11° / -6°C |
| January | 34% | 34% | 14.1 h | -13° / -8°C |
| February | 40% | 40% | 11.5 h | -13° / -7°C |
| March | 49% | 49% | 8.4 h | -9° / -3°C |
| April | 39% | 52% | 2.4 h | -4° / 3°C |
Darkness through the year
- No full darkness (Sun 12° below the horizon) from 23 April to 19 August — the sky stays too bright for most auroras.
- Next new moon 9 November, next full moon 26 October. The darkest skies are in the week around new moon.
Aurora nights in Boliden 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
- Skellefteå Airport (SFT) · 42 km
Luleå Airport (LLA) · 111 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
- Winter driving
- From 1 December to 31 March, cars must use winter tyres (Alpine-marked or studded) with at least 3 mm of tread whenever winter road conditions apply. Studded tyres are allowed from 1 October to 15 April, and at other times when winter conditions apply or are expected. Trafikverket runs the road traffic information service. Road conditions
- Access to land
- Allemansrätten lets anyone walk and stay temporarily on others' land, including pitching a tent for a night or two, provided you don't disturb and don't destroy. It does not cover gardens next to homes, crops or grazing land, or motorised off-road driving. National parks and nature reserves can have stricter rules.
- Official space-weather service
- Swedish Institute of Space Physics (IRF), Kiruna: all-sky camera and IRF Aurora Alert app
- Weather service
- SMHI (Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute)
Questions and answers
What Kp do you need to see the aurora in Boliden?
From Boliden 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 Boliden?
Face north (about 356° from true north). At Kp 0 the lower edge of the aurora sits roughly 10° above the horizon; stronger activity lifts it higher and further across the sky.
What is the best month to see the aurora in Boliden?
Over 2005–2025, March gave the best odds in Boliden (49% of nights dark, active enough and mostly clear), followed by September (46%).
When is the aurora season in Boliden?
From 23 April to 19 August the sky in Boliden never gets dark enough. Outside that period the aurora can be seen whenever activity and clouds allow.
Is there much light pollution in Boliden?
Some sky glow from nearby lights. Moderate displays are fine; faint ones are easier a few kilometres out. A noticeably darker area starts about 5 km to the west-north-west.
When was the aurora last possible in Boliden?
Activity last reached storm level (Kp 5 or more) during darkness in Boliden on 10 October 2026 (Kp 7.0) — 809 such nights since 1995. Here the aurora also appears on many quieter nights.
Also covered by this forecast
Villages and districts around Boliden share its forecast: within a few kilometres the sky, the Kp needed and the best direction are the same.
- Strömfors 2 km
- Nyholm 2 km
- Bjurliden 2 km
- Sandberg 4 km
- Bastunäs 4 km
- Svanström 6 km
- Svanfors 6 km
- Olofsberg 6 km
- Granholm 6 km
- Tarsnäs 7 km
- Norrliden 7 km
- Norra Åkulla 7 km
- Brännberget 8 km
- Kankberg 9 km
- Östra Stavträsk 10 km
- Nybäck 10 km
- Grånäs 10 km
- Gran 10 km
- Storselet 11 km
- Olofsberg 11 km
- Norrbäck 11 km
- Nilsliden 11 km
- Häbbersfors 11 km
- Sandfors 12 km
- Höglund 12 km
- Högdalsås 12 km
- Högdal 12 km
- Kusliden 13 km
- Klockträsk 13 km
- Eriksdal 13 km
- Nyträsk 15 km
- Fjällboda 15 km
- Storkågeträsk 16 km
- Hedlunda 16 km
- Brännbacka 17 km
- Lundbacken 19 km
- Dalliden 19 km
- Hornsträsk 20 km
- Jörn-Boliden 21 km
- Pärlström 22 km