Five Tips on How to Prepare for the Northern Lights

1. Dress warmly and be patient - Sometimes you have to wait for the Northern Lights to appear in the sky. Autumn, winter and spring nights can get cold! 

2. Keep an eye on the cloud cover forecast - To see aurora, we need darkness and clear or partly clear sky. The sky doesn’t need to be perfect but be sufficiently dark. Aurora season is from late-August until late-April.  

3. Be outside at the right time - Aurora is on average most frequently in the Icelandic sky around 11 pm. So make sure you are outside from roughly 10 pm to 01 am at least. Find out more on Iceland at night  

4. Don’t rely on the Kp-index - One of the biggest mistakes people make when chasing Northern Lights is relying too heavily on the Kp-index. It doesn’t predict how bright and intense the aurora will become.   

5. Keep an eye on the real time space weather data - Instead of the Kp-index, one of the most important number to watch is called the Bz value. Simplified, when Bz is negative or south, aurora is on. When positive or north, aurora is weak or even off. The lower the number, the more chance of seeing beautiful northern lights. 

When is the best time to hunt the northern lights?

To see the aurora, the sky has to be dark and clear. You can see the Northern Lights anywhere in Iceland from around middle of August until the end of April, as long as the sky is clear. Of course, they’re in the sky during the summer months, but then it never gets dark enough for them to be visible. In May, June and July the sky is simply too bright to see the aurora. 

Where can I find Aurora forecast information?

You can find aurora forecast information, including cloud cover predictions for Iceland and real-time space weather data, on the Iceland at Night website

Author: Sævar Helgi Bragason/ Iceland at Night