Aurora · Finland
Northern lights forecast for Oulu
From Oulu the aurora needs Kp 1 or more, and a clear sky. It appears often overhead: the auroral oval passes close by on ordinary nights.
Right now
Loading the planetary Kp from NOAA…
Aurora is a Pro layer. Open it in the app to see the oval over Oulu.
Open in the appGet an alert
Free push notification the first time the forecast reaches Kp 1 here. No account, no app to install.
Oulu at a glance
- Kp needed (on the horizon)
- 1
- Geomagnetic latitude
- 62.3° N
- Dark enough
- Aug 18 to Apr 25
- 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. Oulu lies at 62.3° geomagnetic latitude, so an aurora shows on its horizon from about Kp 1 or more, and overhead a couple of Kp steps higher. Between Apr 26 and Aug 17 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.