Northern lights forecast
for Straumsnes
Straumsnes, Norway — about 66.5° geomagnetic latitude. A quiet jetty on Senja's E86 toward Hamn — water, silence and a 360° horizon.
Northern lights in Straumsnes tonight · live
Reading the field under the auroral oval…
How it works
A magnetometer measures the Earth’s magnetic field. When a substorm surges the electric current that runs about 100 km up along the auroral oval, the field on the ground beneath it drops by hundreds of nanotesla (nT) within minutes — the sharp dip a magnetogram shows.
This reads the nearest of the Finnish Meteorological Institute’s eight magnetometers, Kilpisjärvi, against its own last 24 hours: 150 nT either way is active, a 300 nT drop a substorm, 600 a strong one. It measures the sky over the station — up to about 300 km away it still speaks for yours — and says nothing about cloud. Kp and Hp30 are planetary; this is local, and minutes old.
Where to look
From the jetty, face north; every direction opens to water. Watch for black ice on the road. Foreground: the jetty and the fjord reflection.
Can you see the aurora in Straumsnes?
Yes. From a dark site you need about Kp 1 for a faint glow low on the northern horizon, and roughly Kp 3 for bright aurora directly overhead. At 66.5° geomagnetic latitude Straumsnes sits deep under the auroral oval — quiet nights are often enough.
Over the last 12 months the planetary Kp peaked at the levels Straumsnes needs on the days shown — out of 365. Kp is a global index, so these are the odds the sky was active enough; you still need clear, dark skies here. In 94 years on record the strongest day hit Kp 9.
The greatest storms on record: The Halloween storms (Oct 2003) · The Gannon storm (May 2024) · 13 Nov 1960
The full Kp archive, 1932 → today →When to go
The season runs early September to early April, when the nights are long and dark. You also need clear skies and a low moon — even a strong Kp is useless under cloud. Check tonight's live call above, then plan a night around the dark window, cloud and moon.
Clearest dark months here (outlined): Jan, Mar, Oct. Faint: no night with an hour of astronomical darkness — midnight sun (Jun, Jul); white nights, twilight only (Apr, May, Aug). Part-faint months are dark on some nights only: dark until 25 Mar; dark from 17 Sep. ERA5 reanalysis, 2015–2024 monthly mean. Climatology, not a forecast — a regional ~25 km grid; local microclimates are not captured. Darkness & moon calendar → Best month, all spots →
Nearby in Senja
Thresholds are averages from a dark site. Real visibility also needs clear skies, darkness and a cooperative moon — read every number as a chance, not a guarantee. The map is schematic: the oval is drawn around the geomagnetic pole and tuned to this place, so its edge reaches the marker at the Kp this page gives; the marker is approximate.