Did the northern lights reach you?
Type your town and the date. The answer comes from that night’s real Kp index, any night since 1932: whether the aurora was overhead, low on the horizon, or stayed further north, with the map of how far it reached.
The greatest aurora nights since 1932
Every night in the Kp archive that reached Kp 9- or 9. Tap one to check your town.
- 19 January 2026Kp 9-
- 11 November 2025Kp 9-
- 10 October 2024Kp 9-
- 10 May 2024The strongest storm in twenty years, seen across Europe and the USKp 9
- 7 November 2004Kp 9-
- 30 October 2003The Halloween stormsKp 9
- 29 October 2003The Halloween stormsKp 9-
- 15 July 2000The Bastille Day stormKp 9
- 8 November 1991Kp 9-
- 13 March 1989The storm that blacked out QuébecKp 9
- 18 September 1941Kp 9
- 24 March 1940Kp 9
- 25 January 1938The Fátima storm, red skies across EuropeKp 9-
Questions
How do you know if the northern lights reached my town?
From the Kp index of that night, the measure of how strong the aurora was, read for every three hours since 1932 from GFZ Potsdam's archive. The stronger the night, the further from the poles the aurora reaches. Your town's distance from the magnetic pole decides whether it was overhead, low on the horizon, or too far away.
What does Kp mean?
Kp is a scale from 0 to 9 for how disturbed the earth's magnetic field is. At Kp 3 the aurora stays over the Arctic; at Kp 5 it can be seen in Scotland, Scandinavia and Canada; at Kp 7 to 9 it reaches central Europe and the middle of the US, and on the greatest nights even Spain or Texas.
Which night is it?
The night that starts on the evening you choose: from 18:00 that evening to 06:00 the next morning, in your town's own time. The answer uses the strongest three hours of that night.
Why didn't I see it when the answer says yes?
Clouds, the moon and city lights decide what you actually see. The answer says how far the aurora reached; you needed a clear, dark sky towards the north to see it, and a phone camera often sees more than the eye.
Does it work south of the equator?
Yes: there it is the southern lights, the aurora australis, round the southern magnetic pole.
Can I get the map as a print?
Yes. Every answer opens as a print, the map of that night with your town marked, or as a print with three of your own photos of the lights.
Keep the night
The map of the night you saw the lights, with your town marked, as a printable PDF.
Northern lights map · €14.90Kp index: GFZ Potsdam, CC BY 4.0. The reach of the aurora is a model from the Kp index, not an observation.