Northern Lights in Fairbanks
Alaska
Aurora needs a dark sky, enough geomagnetic activity and clear weather. This page covers all three for Fairbanks, Alaska, month by month.
Best Time to Go
Best months for an overhead display: January, February, March.
- Overhead display
- Kp 1 or higher
Tonight, Live
Live Aurora Maps
Aurora Oval Right Now
Tonight's Viewline
Dark enough from September to April. Too light to see aurora from May to August.
At this latitude the aurora is usually within view low in the northern sky on dark nights, even when activity is low, so we do not give a horizon count here. It is not a promise of a display, and clear, dark skies are needed.
Best time of night: the aurora here is usually strongest around 2am standard time (3am while clocks are on daylight saving time), from about 12am to 4am standard time.
The activity counts here cover geomagnetic activity and darkness only, not clouds. Clear, dark skies are needed to see aurora.
How to Read This Page
Three things have to line up to see the northern lights: darkness, enough geomagnetic activity for the latitude, and a clear sky.
Dark hours are the hours each night with the sun more than 12 degrees below the horizon, read on the 15th of the month.
Activity is the Kp index, a 0 to 9 scale of geomagnetic activity measured every 3 hours. Each place needs a certain Kp for a faint glow to the north and a higher Kp for a display overhead. The counts show how often dark nights reached that level from 1991 to 2025.
The best months are the three months when the largest share of dark nights reached the level. They often fall around the equinoxes, in March and in September and October, rather than in midwinter: geomagnetic storms are more common then, because the tilt of the Earth's magnetic field around the equinoxes makes it easier for the Sun's magnetic field, carried by the solar wind, to connect with it.
The activity counts do not include clouds, and history is not a forecast. Check the live maps on the night, before you head out.
Hours of Darkness Each Month
Mostly Clear Nights and Cold by Month
| Month | Mostly clear nights in a typical month | Average low | Average snow depth |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | about 19 nights | -9°F-23°C | 16 in41 cm |
| February | about 15 nights | -5°F-20°C | 18 in47 cm |
| March | about 18 nights | -1°F-18°C | 19 in49 cm |
| April | about 10 nights | 18°F-8°C | 12 in30 cm |
| May | too light | 36°F2°C | 1 in3 cm |
| June | too light | 48°F9°C | nonenone |
| July | too light | 51°F11°C | nonenone |
| August | about 3 nights | 46°F8°C | nonenone |
| September | about 8 nights | 36°F2°C | 1 in3 cm |
| October | about 9 nights | 20°F-7°C | 6 in16 cm |
| November | about 14 nights | 0°F-18°C | 9 in22 cm |
| December | about 18 nights | -6°F-21°C | 13 in32 cm |
A mostly clear night here has at least 2 dark hours with under 50 percent cloud cover (a satellite estimate for the area), counted from 2001 to 2025.
Mostly clear nights and active nights are counted separately, so they are not always the same nights.
Cloud, low and snow figures are satellite and model estimates for the area around each place, 2001 to 2025, not readings from a local weather station. They are averages, not a forecast.
Biggest Nights on Record Here
- November 11, 2025: Kp 9
- August 23, 2005: Kp 9
- November 9, 2004: Kp 9
- November 7, 2004: Kp 9
- October 28, 2003: Kp 9
The strongest dark nights here from 1991 to 2025, each strong enough for a display overhead at Fairbanks. Clear, dark skies needed.
Moon Guide
Moonlight washes out a faint aurora. The darkest skies come in the week around each new moon:
The Solar Cycle
In October 2024 NASA and NOAA announced that the Sun had reached the maximum period of Solar Cycle 25, which they said could last about a year. Source: NASA
Month by Month in Fairbanks
| Month | Dark hours | Nights reaching Kp 1 (overhead) |
|---|---|---|
| January | 14.2 | about 29 nights |
| February | 11.7 | about 27 nights |
| March | 8.6 | about 28 nights |
| April | 3.7 | about 20 nights |
| May | none | too light |
| June | none | too light |
| July | none | too light |
| August | none | too light |
| September | 7.3 | about 27 nights |
| October | 10.8 | about 28 nights |
| November | 13.6 | about 27 nights |
| December | 15.0 | about 27 nights |
Nights in a typical month. Clear, dark skies needed.
When Is the Best Time to See the Northern Lights in Fairbanks?
Best months for an overhead display: January, February, March. Dark enough from September to April. Too light to see aurora from May to August.
Also in Alaska
Dark hours: time with the sun more than 12 degrees below the horizon on the night of the 15th. Kp needed: from the place's corrected geomagnetic latitude (AACGM-v2) and NOAA's average position of the auroral oval; the horizon figure adds our own allowance of about 3 degrees. Nights: definitive Kp, 1991 to 2025, counting only nights with darkness.
Kp index data: Geomagnetic Observatory Niemegk, GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences, CC BY 4.0. Matzka, J., Stolle, C., Yamazaki, Y., Bronkalla, O. and Morschhauser, A., 2021. The geomagnetic Kp index and derived indices of geomagnetic activity. Space Weather, https://doi.org/10.1029/2020SW002641 CC BY 4.0
The month figures are history, not a forecast.
Cloud, temperature and snow data: NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) POWER Project, funded through the NASA Earth Science/Applied Science Program. NASA POWER