Can you see northern lights in summer

To read our privacy policy click here. We use cookies to help us provide a better service for you. By continuing to use this site you agree to the use of cookies. Click here for more information Got it! View Holidays. If we could answer this question we would be rich beyond the dreams of men!

The best we can do is to provide a rough guide based on certain timescales. January to March These are probably the three most popular months for Aurora hunting because they bring long dark nights and plenty of snow to play in during the daylight hours while you wait for darkness to fall. View Holidays Next: April to August. Credit: Northern Norway. April to August To see the Northern Lights you need dark skies and from early-April until late-August, the Aurora may be blazing across the Arctic firmament but it is visible only to scientific equipment, as the skies are just too light for the human eye to see the show.

View Holidays Next: September and October. Credit: Markku Inkila. September and October These are the months we would recommend to anybody who prefers to avoid the extreme cold of an Arctic winter. View Holidays Next: November and December. November and December November is very much a time of change in the Arctic and heralds the arrival of the first major snows of the winter. Learn more about the Northern Lights. Coronal Holes — A clue to when the Northern Lights might appear?

And if sweden or iceland is better? If so, is there a recommended particular spot? Hope to hear from you soon! I would recommend March over December simply because the typically snow falls in December. Abisko, Sweden statistically has more days of viewing the Northern Lights than anywhere else in Europe and due to the microclimate, the weather is much more stable than in Iceland.

I love your post! My boyfriend and I are planning to go to Escandinavia in early September, so we were thinking about going somewhere to try to see the northern lights. Do you have any idea which place would be the best in Septmeber? Also we will look for other activities following your advices! Thanks a lot! Cheers from Argentina!

Hi Carla! Abisko in Sweden statistically reports the most nights of Northern Lights visibility and does have much better and predictable weather than Iceland due to their microclimate. Either would be a good choice. Great tips indeed. By husband and I are planning to visit Scandinavia in December as I would like to see Christmas there and also witness Northern lights.

For a period of 2 weeks which destinations will you recommend. How would the weather be in the these destinations that you would recommend and will it be possible to get warm clothing on rent there? It will be quite cold, especially for someone not used to the weather. It also tends to snow more in December. We typically wear thermal layers under the clothing provided when doing outdoor activities.

Nice images, i am planning for ICELAND in Dec for 8 days, i have request to make, as i m also a amateur photographer, planning to make lots of Timelapse of Aurora, waterfalls, lakes, etc, varied landscape, can you plz help me out in making a itinerary , and which places to go and the days needed…need your recommendation, which is better a self drive tour or a escorted tour , as i have heard, it snows heavily, roads blockage, and becomes difficult for driving,.

We only recommend a self-drive for Iceland. Especially if you are interested in being able to photograph the sites and create time-lapse videos, a bus tour is not the way to go.

We already have an itinerary. Have you checked it out? The weather is about the same during that time. December can have more snow, but the weather in Iceland is pretty unpredictable most of the year. You can have all different kinds of weather in the span of a few hours. You do have more hours of daylight in October as opposed to December, so that is something to take in to consideration. Feel free to let us know if you have other questions about Northern Lights.

Quick question. My family and i are planning a trip to Kamloops, Canada from the 21 of december throu january 1st. Do you think there could be any chance we get to see the northern lights in that season? My sister lives there and told me that some people have said that there are some spots where we might catch them.

On our first night of Northern Lights they started everywhere but north, They finally did end up being mostly in the north and our guide was so surprised by the direction from which they started. Thanks for this information! It is definitely on my bucket list, right next to my dream Alaska vacation. Technically, the Northern Lights are there all the time. We just can only see them when it is dark enough for them to be visible. Since Alaska is your dream vacation, you could combine it with a Northern Lights hunting trip during the winter months!

I live in Northern Wisconsin, on Lake Superior and they are not always there. Every night sky is different. But when the Northern lights come out, the phones start ringing everywhere in our little town, and everyone runs outside to see them.

Thanks so much for your insight, Dan! Happy hunting and thanks for sharing your wonderful photo with us! My pleasure, and thank you for a great article; I have shared it on my page, so that my future guests can get good knowledge and information about the beauty in the sky?

Keep up the good work! I cannot wait until I get a chance to see them. My preferred spot? The Lofoten Islands! We really hope you get to see the Northern Lights, J. They really are a spectacular sight. Pale grey and beautiful.

Joel joelmciver. Hope you get to see the Northern Lights, Kay! What part of Iceland are you visiting and how many days are you staying? I agree with point 8- aurora can be seen when there is a full moon. I just experienced a short few minutes of aurora when it appeared on 26 december 2 hours west wards, outside of reyjkevik.

It was infact having snow flurries, thereafter the skies cleared up and we saw the moon. Shortly after, the aurora started Appearing! Our guide was very pesistent and she encouraged us to hang in there and watch for it! Heavy snow falling and completely clouded over skies.

But the weather can literally change in the blink of an eye in the Arctic. So persistence is the true key to seeing the Northern Lights. Glad that you go to experience them, Anne! Be sure you get out of the city. A friend and I are going to Iceland in a few days.

I hope we see the Northern Lights! We my husband and two friends have just returned from a wonderful trip to Iceland today and I am very pleased to say that we were very lucky to get a sighting of the lights on 3 separate nights.

The other two nights, the 13th and 14th were only green to the camera and much fainter to the eye but do you know why I was the only person not to get any colour on the night everyone else did?

Hi Jude, it sounds like the Aurora was faint on the night you all saw it and it appeared green to the others. Some people are colorblind to only certain colors. Or it could be that the mind sort of plays tricks on us. I remember the very first time I saw it, it appeared white or light gray to me.

After I saw it on the preview screen on the camera, I could pick up the green more in the sky. Hi, I loved your pictures of the northern lights and I really want to go and see it. I have no idea however where to book my flights to and where the cheapest hotels are and a good tour group to see the northern lights. I want to go with my husband and 2 kids, so I am on a budget. I was hoping to go in the easter holidays, do you think I could still see it?

I would appreciate any advice and suggestions please, thank you x. The season is September — March, but by the end of March the days are already much longer and not dark enough to be able to see the Northern Lights. As far as which destination you can reach most affordably, it really depends on where you live and which destinations are most accessible to you. I saw the northern lights in Abisko.

Once from the Aurora Sky station m a. One thing that absolutely no one is telling you is that the photo can be very misleading. What I saw through naked eye was a beatiful but very dim white-greenish light — the second day rather spectacular, with an arch covering almost half of the sky -, moving, appearing as wedges, then becoming white-greenish curtains. Just one meter ahead of me there were a tourist taking long exposition shots.

And the image he got it was something even more unbelieveble, a really strong green cloud hovering above the mountains. Photographs tend to amplify the intensity quite a lot. Glad to got to see the Northern Lights, Daniel! I have seen them five times. Once purely by chance from South Wales on 8th November , very bright reds and overhead, spectacular, even Patrick Moore mentioned this display in one of his many books. I was on Orkney last year and heard that the night I arrived the lights had made an appearance so the next night I walked above the street lights of Stromness at about ten p.

I was treated to a greyish white display for about two hours, Really had to adjust my eyes to the dark and be patient, It was a very slow formation, like someone shining the beams of torches into the air or a SLOOOOW heart monitor.

The same happened the next night. I saw them again from Glastonbury in October, very clear and looked like a crazy cloud formation but it was such a clear night there was no way it was a cloud. The last time was on Samhain, October 31st, Bitterly cold Halloween evening and my friend and I were walking through a cemetery near Newbury, We saw a very distinct single curved line, again greyish in colour which gradually moved lower in the sky until it faded.

So yes, head out a few hours after dusk, away from Street lights.. Autumn is good!! Then wait and be patient. It is not always going to be a multi colured time lapse display, but you will be rewarded for your patience. Hey I loved your pics and article about the Aurora lights. I live in Dublin and Unfortunately due to my collage life I cant plan a visit to Iceland or Finland more than a weekend ,until, end of may. And I missed the aurora in January where it appeared in Iceland. So I was wondering if I have any chance to travel on a weekend or do I need more than 3 nights?

Plus, is it true after it will start to disappear? There are no guarantees even if you stay three nights. And no, the Northern Lights are not going to disappear. This is going to sound like a lie, or a boast or whatever, but I have just seen the lights again. From Glastonbury. Because I posted here a few days ago and have been renewing my interest, I found out today that the aurora put on a good display in Britain last night.

I can just see the Northern horizon from my living room window, and despite a few clouds to the South and West we had a clear and cold night tonight. I watched for a while, it was not behaving in a cloud like way, but nothing great, so I was about to retire to bed. As I have observed before, beams carry far across the sky to East and West, and tonight there were a few at opposing angles. At one point a totally random curved wisp just appeared in the East and then went as quickly.

Will definitely keep them in mind when i plan a visit to see the Northern Lights. Seeing the lights is not as simple as folk believe. I have been interested in Astronomy since a young age and know enough about constellations etc to know even which direction to look in. That sounds obvious, but a group of us drove out to the Ring Of Brodgar on Orkney one crystal clear night at ten p. Some of our party did not know how to find the Pole Star, I was happy to point it out to them, as the lights will always start in this direction.

Unfortunately it was a crystal clear night but COLD, even in mid September and although we observed the beginning of the lights as a low greyish arc in the North with the sloooow heart monitor effect starting at midnight, some of the party were a bit disappointed and cold and wanted to leave..

The Moon on a stick?? Photos on this site and in general of the lights are stunning, as are time lapse videos, but folk need to realise that although bright colours can appear was red, so red!! Have managed to pick out pink and yellow shades before, but it does require being away from any light pollution and being incredibly patient.

Also they do dance, but definitely not in the way folk think. Not sure I am in the right place to ask these questions… We are trying to calculate our best place to see the Northern Lights anytime between Dec.

Any thoughts? Hi Tina! Unfortunately, no one can give you an answer to where you can see the Northern Lights between December 24 and January 2. I can tell you that the Arctic receives the bulk of its snow in December and January so weather is just less stable.

If you happen to see the Northern Lights, you count yourself lucky that you did. All that said, we believe Abisko, Sweden is one of the best places for a good chance to see the Northern Lights because of its micro-climate. Abisko: no or few clouds, away from lights. Fancy places to rest [STK — swedish mountain club]. Good access — short trip by train from Kiruna. As others have said NL are really unpredictable — we was frantic looking at Aurora forecast — but we could see them three nights in a row.

Be alert the whole thing lasted half hour in my case. Your blog is so informative and real, your pictures are stunning. Glad to hear you enjoyed it! Certainly feel free to share on your FB Page. Where are you starting your own Northern Lights tour? After midnight, they stepped out of the ice house and noticed the northern lights.

They took out folding chairs and sat on the ice with the lights appearing to dance on the ice around them. Thanks for sharing, Keli! Jennifer, thanks for your post, very informative. I am thinking of coming to see the Northern Lights from United States and have a hard time selecting which country to go to.

Will end of October be a good time? As you said even though I really want to see the Northern Lights, I need to adjust myself and tell myself that it is an added bonus. Being said that, which country should I visit? I heard a lot about Reykjavik but is afraid of too much tourist. Any suggestions? Hi Maureen, it really depends. Iceland will be nice in October. It will still be quite nice in October, but in Iceland you can have every type of weather all in the same day. We are two people from Chile we will be at Reykjavik the nights 19, 20, 24, 25, 26 august and we want to see the northern lights on a private tour to a good place.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it is extremely unlikely that you will see the Northern Lights in August. We have just booked to go to Reykjavik on 5th February for three nights. Im a bit gutted after reading this now?

The weather is just a bit stormier than other months, but there is always a chance. Iceland is stunning and never disappoints! I loved your blog about the northern lights. This year, it has been a really high Northern Light activity in Iceland. I saw the strongest northern lights ever late August this year! Last week I also got a chance to join a northern light boat tour! Then the guide asked us to run out and the whole sky was lit up by the northern lights.

We sat on the deck for one hour enjoying the show! Trying to see northern lights and believe ending of solar maximus soon with Iceland in January best time. Otherwise would Finland be possible when? You have the potential to see the Northern Lights in any of these destinations from September — March.

Just realize that January is one of the worst months with the heaviest snowfall in all of these places, so you tend to experience more cloud cover and weather that prevent you from seeing the Northern Lights due to lack of clear skies. I have a question. Not, not necessarily. The days are getting much longer already in March in the Arctic. The key to being able to see the Northern Lights is darkness and when there are only a few hours of darkness, the chances of seeing the Northern Lights are greatly reduced.

I am planning a trip to Finland in February. Can anyone help with the best places to sight the Northern Lights in Finland? Anywhere above the Arctic Circle in Finnish Lapland. Rovaniemi is extremely popular with the Santa Claus village there.

There is also the snow hotel at Kemi. Basically, you want to stay outside of the big cities like Oulu for easy Northern Lights viewing. Awesome photos and advice. We always hope that travelers we send to Iceland between September and March get to see the Northern Lights, but we always fill their itineraries with suggestions for so many other things to do that the Northern Lights would hopefully feel like a bonus, as you say.

The dream of my life is to watch an aurora, but the trip is very expansive for me and my wife, so we only have one shot to see it. In wich place we have more chances to see an aurora and wich month of the year? We were thinking about Tromso or Reykiavik in september for ten or twelve days, What do you recommend us?? Yellowknife in Canada is an excellent place for aurora hunting and the end of September would be a good time. Apparently equinoxes are the best time of year and this year will be September 22nd.

Plan for some activities and sight seeing and have some aurora forecast websites bookmarked on your phone to keep track of storm activity. Take a good DSLR camera as the auroras I saw in Finland last year were very disappointing to the naked eye but looked amazing when shot with a long exposure.

Especially the last one with the horses. Absolutely worth the chase! September to March is considered Aurora season. It also means going out of light polluted areas, so heading into the countryside. Cold, clear, crisp weather, no precipitation rain or snow etc — again partly this is a visibility issue. Cloud-cover will kill your attempts to view Auroras. Some months in the September — March season like January can be a bit dodgy because it snows a lot, and there is cloud.

Solar maximum helps. I chose late Feb-early March because of the combination of factors above, being near the equinox as well. The weather was pretty much perfect, with no precipitation most days, clear cold skies.

I also went with an experienced off-road company who specialise in Aurora tours www. Their drivers are experienced Aurora hunters and while they cannot promise they will find you Auroras to look at on a single given night, they will give you the best chance to see one or more if they are there to be seen.

If you are and have a 4WD vehicle, of course feel free but be safe. If you are from warmer countries and have little experience driving in very wintry conditions, I would highly recommend going with a professional tour company like superjeep.

I did this and even though I am an experienced driver with a 4WD vehicle and not totally unfamiliar with winter weather driving, I enjoyed the experience more for being with this tour group. I was especially lucky as we had a solar flare on the night we went out, so the whole sky was full of Auroras! Thanks for all your insights, Jadey. It does not need to be cold, and in fact, the Aurora is present all year round.

So so so informative! We have seen multiple reviews online that It might not be good time, possibility of being cloudy. I am planning on being in Oslo mid October.

I decided to do an add on to see the Northern Lights. I am now getting very confused. It seems like Tromsco is good but that Abisko would be better. What are your thoughts on this? If your goal is to see the Northern Lights, then yes, we recommend Abisko.

It has a micro-climate that gives it much more stable weather than anywhere else in the European Arctic. Have you read our article about Abisko? I did a lot of research. On trip advisor, they said the lights chasers in Tromco are great and pretty much get you to see them.

I looked at reviews from last October. These mythical and magical lights have long been famous in Iceland and tourists from all over the world have flocked to the country to see it for themselves. The best season to see the Northern Lights is usually from September to mid-April. Because these are the darkest months in Iceland and to view the Northern Lights, one needs guaranteed darkness and clear skies.

So as beautiful and temperate as Iceland is in the summer, we highly recommend you visit one more time in the winter. We promise that the Northern Lights will not disappoint and will make your trip worthwhile.

If you want to catch a peek, or a photo, try to wait in a location away from urban light pollution and make sure to give your eyes at least 20 minutes to adjust to the darkness.

In the meantime, enjoy a preview of what you might see tonight. These photos and videos were all taken of the Northern Lights on August 3.