Can you see the northern lights in Lofoten tonight?

Visit Lofoten says the islands lie within the aurora oval, with northern lights visible from late August to mid April. Lofoten has sometimes a lot of weather, but mountains help break up cloud and northern-facing beaches provide open viewing points. Getting to the archipelago requires flights to regional or island airports, ferries across the Vestfjord, or driving along the E10.

When to see the northern lights in Lofoten

Visit Lofoten says the Lofoten Islands lie in the Arctic Circle at 67 and 68 degrees north, within what is known as the aurora oval. According to Visit Lofoten, the northern lights are first visible in late August and fade in the spring sky in mid April, so they can be seen for about eight months of the year.

Visit Lofoten says there is no best time to see the northern lights. For hiking and camping September is a better month than November, for skiing or a winter look to your pictures January through March is maybe the best time to visit, and the long nights of November and December do not necessarily bring more hours of aurora. Visit Lofoten says that more commonly, under average conditions, the northern lights first appear around 20:00 to 21:00 and fade a little after midnight; during ongoing solar storms they can be visible as soon as it is sufficiently dark, though this is somewhat rare.

Visit Lofoten says you cannot see the northern lights every night, either because of low solar activity or because the sky is covered in cloud. Visit Lofoten says Lofoten has a lot of mountains and sometimes a lot of weather, and that the mountains help break up the cloud, opening gaps where the aurora can be seen even on cloudy nights. Visit Lofoten says that even in midwinter, with the islands under snow, Lofoten's coastal climate keeps temperatures quite mild compared with inland destinations.

How to get to Lofoten

Lofoten has three airports and Norway's only commercial helicopter route. Widerøe flies several times a day from Bodø to Svolvær and to Leknes. SAS flies from Oslo Gardermoen to Bodø and Tromsø, with Widerøe onward from Bodø to Svolvær and Leknes, and there are also flights from Tromsø to Leknes; one connecting ticket can cover the whole journey.

Harstad/Narvik Airport Evenes is 170 km from Svolvær. There are several daily direct flights to it from Oslo Gardermoen, and several carriers fly to it direct from European airports. The drive from Evenes to Svolvær takes around two and a half hours depending on conditions, and longer in winter. The Lofotekspressen, route 300, is the only public bus from Evenes Airport, running between Å, Leknes, Svolvær, Evenes and Narvik; Visit Lofoten advises checking the Reis app beforehand that it fits your flight's arrival.

The E10 runs from Luleå in Sweden west to Å in Lofoten. Lofast connects Lofoten to the mainland by road, and the E10 from Fiskebøl to Å is 163 km, with routes continuing inland past Kiruna.

Sea crossings connect the islands to the mainland:

• The quickest ferry from Bodø to Lofoten is the direct crossing to Moskenes, about three and a half hours, with or without a vehicle.
• An express boat, NEX 2, crosses the Vestfjord from Bodø to Svolvær, with stops on the way.
• Hurtigruten calls at Stamsund and Svolvær, northbound and southbound, in the evening.

Where to stand to see the aurora

Visit Lofoten calls the dozens of sandy beaches along Lofoten's sparsely populated northern coast the best places to begin the search as the sky darkens. Most are easily reached from the E10, and many are only a few minutes apart, so you can move quickly from one to the next. Visit Lofoten says most of Lofoten's inhabitants live in small towns and villages across the central and southern side of the islands, which leaves the northern side, and most of the best aurora-watching places, free of surrounding light pollution.

Visit Lofoten says the northern lights in general appear as an arch across the northern sky, so at a low activity level you want an open northern horizon and sky. As the intensity increases the arch moves higher, eventually overhead, and its points of origin on the horizon shift towards east and west, so when the aurora is very active you look west or east rather than north. Visit Lofoten says that on nights of high activity it can often be necessary to move between places. Uttakleiv beach suits low to mid-level auroras with its view of the northern horizon, but it is surrounded by mountains from west to east, so as activity increases the aurora moves behind them, and Haukland or Vik beach round the corner offer visibility west and south-west.

Many hotels, rorbu cabins and rentals in Lofoten are in places where you only have to step outside to see the aurora; long trips late at night are not required. Lofoten's aurora guides know where to go when most of the islands are under cloud; they call this the aurora hunt. For regional comparisons across destinations, see the guide to the best places to see the northern lights.