Aurora · Scotland
Northern lights forecast for Inverness
From Inverness the aurora needs Kp 3 or more, and a clear sky. It appears low on the northern horizon at first, climbing higher as Kp rises above 3.
Right now
Loading the planetary Kp from NOAA…
Aurora is a Pro layer. Open it in the app to see the oval over Inverness.
Open in the appGet an alert
Free push notification the first time the forecast reaches Kp 3 here. No account, no app to install.
Inverness at a glance
- Kp needed (on the horizon)
- 3
- Geomagnetic latitude
- 59.8° N
- Dark enough
- Jul 21 to May 22
- Best hours
- around local midnight
How to read this
Kp measures how disturbed Earth's magnetic field is, from 0 to 9. The higher it goes, the further the auroral oval spreads toward the equator. Inverness lies at 59.8° geomagnetic latitude, so an aurora shows on its horizon from about Kp 3 or more, and overhead a couple of Kp steps higher. Between May 23 and Jul 20 the sun never goes more than 12° below the horizon here: the sky stays too bright to see an aurora whatever the Kp. Get away from city lights and look north.
Nearby places
Source
Kp observed and forecast: NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center, read live by your browser. Kp threshold: centred-dipole geomagnetic latitude and NOAA's ~2° per Kp oval rule, an estimate that shifts with each storm; the aurora map shows the OVATION oval as it is now.