More Northern Lights Next Season

There will be more and stronger northern lights in Northern Norway and further south over the coming years, forecasters say.

Solar activity, which is the determinant of how much northern lights we get, has been extremely low for many years but this trend has now turned.

Check the northern ligths forecast.

Northern Lights in Scotland and Ireland

This weekend, the northern lights were so strong that people as far south as in Oslo and Ireland could see the phenomena.

In Tromso the display was breathtaking, despite it being very late in the season and the midnight sun is not many weeks off.

If solar activity continues to pick up, which it is believed to do, stunning displays will be seen in the Arctic areas, and the aurora would be visible as far south as Scotland and southern Scandinavia in coming years.

Sun Activity at Record Low for Years

Activity on the sun, which causes solar winds and northern lights, has been remarkably low in recent years. Read more about what causes northern lights.

“In recent years the sun has been very quiet. Not in a hundred years has it been as quiet as over the past two years. And even if we up here in the Arctic always get a little northern lights, it has been far less than normal,” Truls Lynne Hansen at the Northern Lights Observatory in Tromso told NRK.no.

Now forecasters have started to see that the solar cycle has turned, and more and more activity on the sun is recorded. This is good news for anyone planning a Northern Lights Holiday next winter.

Good for Northern Lights Holidays

If the sun is active, northern lights is normally seen every night in places like Tromso, Alta and Lofoten, as long as the weather is clear.

The solar cycle is normally around 11 years, so over the next 4-5 years will be the best time to plan a trip to the Arctic to see the magical lights.

Lights can only be seen between August and April in the North. The rest of the year, the midnight sun makes it too light to see any northern lights in Norway. Read more about when and where to see the northern lights.

Read more about northern lights holidays in Northern Norway.

Check the northern lights forecast.