Skip to content

Northern lights in Iceland tonight

Iceland tonight, maybe.

Kp you need
1–2
Peak tonight
4.7
Cloud, clearest
46%
Dark · UTC
20:24–05:40

The Kp is there everywhere; the cloud decides. Clearest: Snæfellsnes, maybe at 46%. Moon 63% · aurora probability now 0%.

The Iceland watch point →

Tonight · clearest first

7 places
  1. 1Snæfellsnes46%maybecloud 46% · Kirkjufell · the west
  2. 2Reykjavík80%cloudcloud 80% · the capital · drive out of town
  3. 3Akureyri100%cloudcloud 100% · the north · its own weather
  4. 4Jökulsárlón100%cloudcloud 100% · glacier lagoon · icebergs
  5. 5Mývatn100%cloudcloud 100% · inland north · lava fields
  6. 6Vík100%cloudcloud 100% · south coast · black sand
  7. 7Þingvellir100%cloudcloud 100% · Golden Circle · a dark park
On the map
● go● maybe○ the book's frame

Bars: clear sky over each place's dark window tonight (Open-Meteo). Coast: Natural Earth 1:10m (public domain).

Snæfellsnes is the clearest tonight — 46% cloud.

This week · Iceland

Kp and cloud reach three nights out · UTC
The next seven nights at Iceland: the call, the darkness, the moon, and Kp and cloud where the forecasts reach
TonightTue 20Wed 21Thu 22Fri 23Sat 24Sun 25
Callcloudmaybe—————
Dark9.3 h9.4 h9.5 h9.6 h9.7 h9.8 h9.9 h
Moon63%73%82%89%95%99%100%
Kp / cloud4.7 · 100%3.7 · 22%—————

Darkness and the moon are astronomy — exact for all seven nights. Kp is NOAA's forecast peak over each dark window, cloud Open-Meteo's mean; both reach about three nights out (2 of 7 here). Whole-season calendar →

Clear sky by month · Iceland

Clearest dark months: Jan, Mar, Sep.

ERA5 2015–24, 100 − mean cloud cover — climatology, not a forecast · faint: no dark nights · Best month, all spots →

Iceland in numbers

for a glow
Kp 2
overhead
Kp 4
geomagnetic
64°
Kp 2+ days, last year
310 / 365

From the book

Each place, its own page

Questions people ask

Can you see the northern lights in Iceland?

Yes. The island lies at about 63–67° geomagnetic latitude, at the edge of the auroral oval or under it: about Kp 2 brings a glow over most of it, Kp 1 in the north around Akureyri and Mývatn, and roughly Kp 4 puts aurora overhead. On most nights the limit is the cloud, not the Kp.

Where in Iceland is it clearest?

It changes from night to night. On ten years of ERA5 monthly means every place here is cloudy most of the time — Reykjavík a little less than most — but an average isn't the night you're out: the highlands split the island's weather, so one coast can be clear while another is under cloud. The board above reads tonight's cloud at each place.

When is the aurora season in Iceland?

From about mid-August to late April the nights get dark enough; from May to early August they are too bright. The ten-year cloud record is on the strip above, month by month — and you also need a low moon: the season sheet lists the dark, moonless weeks.

Should I drive or take a tour?

If you aren't used to winter roads, take a tour from Reykjavík or Akureyri — the tours chase the clearer skies. If you drive, check the roads (umferdin.is) and the weather (vedur.is) first: winter storms close roads, and the south coast's gusts can be dangerous. Never stop on the road for the lights — use a proper parking area.

About this page

A live call for each of seven places around Iceland — the Kp, tonight's dark window, the cloud over each — because what decides a night here is where the cloud isn't. Then the book's two Icelandic frames, Vatnajökull and the Blue Lagoon, each with its own page and photograph.

Iceland's Kp is one number — about 2 for a glow over most of the island, 1 in the north. What tells the places apart is the cloud, so each has its own call tonight.

Each call is the site's own: NOAA's Kp against each place's threshold (from its geomagnetic latitude), Open-Meteo's cloud over its dark window tonight, the darkness and the moon. Times are local. History: the GFZ definitive Kp record, the last 365 days. Coast: Natural Earth 1:10m (public domain).

Full live forecast → all 82 spots