Hello guys, I'm planning a trip to see the Northen Lights next year. I've read that the best time to see aurora borealis in Iceland is between September and April, but I would like to know which specific month would I have more chances. I've read that January is a good month but I've also read that it has poor weather in January also.. so I'm a bit confused.. Which month do you guys suggest?
Posted Oct 4, 2022, 3:49 PM UTC
The weather is bad the whole winter. You can find info on the climate, for example on wikipedia, showing the amount of precipitation in different months, and go with the month with the least precipitation in winter.
Absolutely not true. The weather is totally variable throughout the winter. We’ve had everything from beautiful bluebird days to full on whiteouts. There’s no such thing as bad weather, just bad fear choices.
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Hahaha ‘mericans. Yeah, that’s it 🙄
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I mean, I agree with you. I could have phrased this differently, saying that I haven't noticed particular trends for in which winter month has the worst weather^, it's just the same variability. Love those winter days with northerly winds, clear sunny skies and crisp cold weather, and starry skies in the night. It's just that you get them whenever in winter, mixed with the atmospheric lows coming in with wet southerly winds.
Oh, one thing maybe. If you work some weekends, you can almost bet on that weekend being beautiful, while your weekends off have weather that will kill you where you stand.
^ (apart from what OP can see by looking at climate tables on wikipedia, which is probably the best answer to this question)
It will happen when it happens
Not sure where you're getting this info from but trying to predict the Northern Lights and when it will show and how powerful it will be is like trying to predict how many hurricanes will show up and at what strength during hurricane season. You know they'll be there, but that's just about it. As long as it's dark, you may or may not get a chance. I would say, go to Iceland and enjoy it all and don't put too much pressure on your trip to produce the lights.
I went in mid september and was able to get a great view of the aurora. When other commenter's are saying don't base the aurora around your trip, listen to them. Iceland has so much to offer when it comes to sight seeing. The northern lights were one night out of our two week trip. Unless you plan on looking for them every night, I suggest finding some other must-do activities and sights!
There is no specific month good for an aurora... All you need is dark open skies, and solar activity.
Just don't travel between May - August since then its really long daylight. We went 2 weeks ago and saw it 3 times without really searching/ expecting it.
The only difference between september and January is that you'll have some actual daylight in september (to do other stuff. Don't plan for just an aurora). Chances to see it is the same afaik.
I saw them on September 23rd but totally weather dependent it rained a lot too .
As many people on this post have said, don't go just to see the Northern Lights. I went last week and of course I wanted to see them, but I knew if I planned to go solely for this I'd be disappointed. September was great month to see so much beautiful nature with less risk of road closures (although there were some one day).
Solar activity isn’t seasonal is basically just happens when it happens, unless you’re willing to pack up and go at a 48hr notice there’s no point really planning it around this. The only other variable that isn’t in your control is the weather, I can’t say much about the weather (it was shit for my 10 day trip a few weeks ago). But make sure to get yourself in a location that isn’t light polluted and sufficiently dark
We were in Iceland the last week, and i can tell you we saw amazing red/green auroras in the sky, i would say look for the moon phases
Go when the moon it's not present and is so dark you can see stars with naked eye ( i think is called new moon phase ).
Stay in away from civilization, we were in kalfafell in a remote guesthouse for the night we saw it brightest ( also in that region strong winds will help you with weather, there are chances that clouds are swept away faster than other regions because of winds, leaving clear patches in the sky if it's cloudy ), i think in that region we had like 75 sq Km of view all around making hunting the aurora by car useless.
The forecast is all over the place, BUT there are useful applications like "hello aurora" ( IOS store ) that lets you know if people saw an aurora in the region you specify, and "aurora forecast" ( IOS store ), the kp index changes all the time is not accurate enough, we had in the aurora forecast app 4% to see the aurora when we saw it brightest, look at the NOAA space weather prediction center aurora forecast, the big green spot you can see on that globe image, is where the current activity is, so you have to wait for the earth to rotate and have iceland under the big green "cloud" in the image.
My advice is plan to increase the chances it's the best way, but don't be disappointed if you cannot see anything, Iceland is beautiful on it's own!
Good luck!
You might find this useful
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i cannot imagine coming here in the winter. good god
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We go every winter. It’s amazing.