England, United KingdomMagnetic latitude 50.4°Population 13,047257 m above sea level
Can you see the northern lights in Bacup?
From Bacup the aurora is seen only during geomagnetic storms (about Kp 6 or more), usually as a glow low in the north. Cameras often pick it up before the eye does. Since 1995 that level (Kp 6) was reached during darkness here on 227 nights.
Right now
Quiet right now (Kp 1.7).
Latest measured half-hour activity worldwide: Hp30 2.7.
Updates every minute while this page is open. Ground data: GFZ Potsdam Hp30 index (CC BY 4.0).
Tonight in one minute
Not tonight
- Solar activity Too weak: Kp 4 expected, 6 needed here.
- Sky Mostly clear (0% cloud).
- Darkness Dark from 19:25 to 06:23.
What to do: Not tonight — your next chance is shown just below.
- Detailed forecast Fri 16 4 No · Kp 4
- Sat 17 2 No · Kp 2
- Sun 18 1.7 No · Kp 1.7
- 27-day trend Mon 19 2 No · Kp 2
- Tue 20 3 No · Kp 3
- Wed 21 4 No · Kp 4
- Thu 22 4 No · Kp 4
- Fri 23 4 No · Kp 4
- Sat 24 3 No · Kp 3
- Sun 25 2 No · Kp 2
- Mon 26 2 No · Kp 2
- Tue 27 2 No · Kp 2
- Wed 28 2 No · Kp 2
- Thu 29 2 No · Kp 2
- Fri 30 5 Photos only · Kp 5
- Sat 31 5 Photos only · Kp 5
- Sun 1 5 Unlikely · Kp 5
- Mon 2 3 No · Kp 3
- Tue 3 2 No · Kp 2
- Wed 4 2 No · Kp 2
- Thu 5 3 No · Kp 3
- Fri 6 3 No · Kp 3
- Sat 7 3 No · Kp 3
Friday 30 October — Photos only · Kp 5 · best around 23:00 · No cloud forecast this far ahead; in October about 31% of nights are clear here. · 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 23:07 local time
Unlikely
Best around 01:00. Forecast max Kp 4.0 (this place needs 6), average cloud 0%.
- Dark enough
- 19:25 – 06:23
- Sunset
- 18:09 · sunrise 07:39
- Moon
- 34% · ↑ 15:11 · ↓ 20:40
- Kp neededKp index: a 0–9 measure of geomagnetic activity. The higher it is, the further from the poles the aurora reaches.
- Kp 6
- Kp for photos
- In photos: from Kp 4.3 (a red glow low in the north).
- 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 | Fri, 23 | Sat, 02 | Sat, 05 | Sat, 20 | Sat, 23 | Sun, 02 | Sun, 05 | Sun, 20 | Sun, 23 | Mon, 02 | Mon, 05 | Mon, 20 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Low cloud | 0% | 27% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 2% | 0% | 15% | 36% | 31% | 0% |
| Mid cloud | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 3% | 0% |
| High cloud | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Temperature | 6 °C | 4 °C | 3 °C | 6 °C | 4 °C | 3 °C | 3 °C | 7 °C | 6 °C | 6 °C | 7 °C | 8 °C |
| Feels like | 3 °C | 2 °C | 1 °C | 3 °C | 1 °C | 1 °C | 0 °C | 4 °C | 3 °C | 3 °C | 3 °C | 6 °C |
| Wind | 2 m/s | 1 m/s | 1 m/s | 2 m/s | 1 m/s | 2 m/s | 2 m/s | 3 m/s | 3 m/s | 4 m/s | 5 m/s | 3 m/s |
| Visibility | 25 km | 19 km | 16 km | 31 km | 24 km | 26 km | 27 km | 27 km | 19 km | 21 km | 21 km | 21 km |
Cloud layers and weather: Open-Meteo (CC BY 4.0).
Score = activity (NOAA Kp and OVATION) × clear sky (MET Norway) × darkness × moonlight. Methodology
Seeing it right now?
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What you would see from Bacup
Facing north. Bands show where the aurora sits at two activity levels.
| Kp | What you see | Lower edge | Ray tops | Distance to the aurora |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Below the horizon | -2° | 2° | 1,346 km |
| 3 | Below the horizon | 0° | 5° | 1,123 km |
| 4 | Below the horizon | 3° | 8° | 901 km |
| 5 | Faint glow, mostly on camera | 6° | 13° | 678 km |
| 6 | Visible to the north | 11° | 21° | 456 km |
| 7 | Visible to the north | 23° | 39° | 234 km |
| 8 | Visible to the north | 84° | 87° | 11 km |
| 9 | Overhead and all around | – | – | – |
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 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 camera in Bacup 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) eye in Bacup 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
Dark rural sky. Little artificial light. Faint displays are visible once your eyes have adapted.
A noticeably darker area starts about 40 km to the north. 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 terrain rises to about 4° above the horizon towards the north. That hides low aurora: here you need about Kp 6 instead of Kp 6. 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 Bacup
Share of nights 2005–2025 that were dark, active enough here and mostly clear.
September has been the best month (1% of nights), followed by May (1%).
| Month | Good nights | Clear nights | Darkness | Low / high |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| September | 1% | 39% | 8.5 h | 9° / 16°C |
| October | 0.3% | 31% | 10.8 h | 6° / 12°C |
| November | 0.2% | 28% | 12.5 h | 3° / 8°C |
| December | 0.5% | 26% | 13.4 h | 2° / 6°C |
| January | 0.3% | 28% | 12.9 h | 1° / 5°C |
| February | 0.2% | 26% | 11.4 h | 1° / 6°C |
| March | 0.2% | 32% | 9.5 h | 1° / 8°C |
| April | 0.3% | 42% | 7.0 h | 3° / 11°C |
Aurora nights in Bacup since 1995
Nights when Kp reached 6 or more while it was dark here.
Most recent strong nights
- 10 October 2026 · Kp 7.0
- 15 May 2026 · Kp 6.0
- 22 March 2026 · Kp 6.7
- 20 March 2026 · Kp 7.0
- 13 March 2026 · Kp 6.0
- 20 January 2026 · Kp 7.7
- 19 January 2026 · Kp 8.7
- 10 December 2025 · Kp 6.0
Practical information
- Nearest airport
- Manchester Airport (MAN) · 40 km
Leeds Bradford Airport (LBA) · 40 km - Typical low / high in September
- 9° / 16°C
- What to wear
- Cool nights: layers, a windproof jacket, hat and gloves for standing still outside. Full clothing guide
- Emergency number
- 999 / 112
- Winter driving
- Winter tyres are not legally required anywhere in the UK (minimum tread 1.6 mm); check Traffic Scotland (trafficscotland.org) for Scottish trunk roads and National Highways for England's motorways and major A-roads. Road conditions
- Access to land
- In Scotland the Scottish Outdoor Access Code gives access rights over most land and inland water at any time of day or night (including responsible wild camping), provided you act responsibly and keep away from buildings; in England and Wales the CRoW Act right of access covers only mapped open access land, on foot, and excludes camping and driving unless the landowner allows it.
- Official space-weather service
- Met Office Space Weather (incl. aurora forecast)
- Weather service
- Met Office
Questions and answers
What Kp do you need to see the aurora in Bacup?
From Bacup the aurora is seen only during geomagnetic storms (about Kp 6 or more), usually as a glow low in the north. Cameras often pick it up before the eye does.
Which way should I look for the aurora in Bacup?
Face north (about 356° from true north). At Kp 6 the lower edge of the aurora sits roughly 11° above the horizon; stronger activity lifts it higher and further across the sky.
What is the best month to see the aurora in Bacup?
Over 2005–2025, September gave the best odds in Bacup (1% of nights dark, active enough and mostly clear), followed by May (1%).
When is the aurora season in Bacup?
Bacup gets dark enough for the aurora all year round, though the long winter nights give the most hours to watch.
Is there much light pollution in Bacup?
Little artificial light. Faint displays are visible once your eyes have adapted. A noticeably darker area starts about 40 km to the north.
When was the aurora last possible in Bacup?
The most recent night in our data when activity reached the level Bacup needs, during darkness, was 10 October 2026 (Kp 7.0). It has happened on 227 nights since 1995.
Also covered by this forecast
Villages and districts around Bacup share its forecast: within a few kilometres the sky, the Kp needed and the best direction are the same.
- Lane Head 0 km
- Higher Broad Clough 1 km
- Greave 1 km
- Higher Change 1 km
- Rockliffe 1 km
- Huttock Top 1 km
- Broad Clough 1 km
- Sharneyford 2 km
- Nun Hills 2 km
- Stacksteads 2 km
- Brandwood 2 km
- Tunstead 2 km
- Shawforth 3 km
- Weir 3 km
- Waterbarn 3 km
- Water 4 km
- Forest Holme 4 km
- Holme Chapel 6 km
- Cliviger 6 km