If current conditions continue past 23:00 tonight, Auroras are likely visible above the city and towards the southern horizon. Ideal spots close to Reykjavík will be Grótta. No specific locations are needed but clear skies and away from street lighting and city lights are recommended. Hvalfjörður, Þingvellir, Reykjanes or Eyrarbakki all are excellent locations not too far from the city. Check thingvellir.is webcams, landhotel.is and livefromiceland.is webcams for actual cloud coverage. Cloud cover as it stands is mostly clear with some high cloud and isolated low clouds around wider Reykjavík.

Good luck!

Over Reykjavik from NNE to WSW

A once-in-a-lifetime event for Iceland unfolded in front of our eyes today. It was hard work, the weather was racing to catch up to us. Ania, Nella and I teamed up and applied our Aurora weather tracking knowledge to a daylight chase. Though Látrabjarg was closed by the time we made it to the western end of the fjords, we still got to witness this spectacle in its full glory. Praise God that we could take part in this amazing display of nature and see it despite the stormy conditions across south western and western Iceland.

Perhaps one of THE rarest phenomena but is it even possible? An aurora during a full solar eclipse?

Technically maybe. 

A total solar eclipse might get dark, but according to some experts only as dark as the first stage of twilight right after sunset, called civil twilight.

Is it possible to see an Aurora during civil twilight? Barely. We’d have to have an extremely active Aurora right over Iceland for that to happen at 5:48-49PM exactly. But our chances might even be better than we’d have thought.

NOAA has confirmed that a solar storm Is indeed on its way, and if it arrives on time as per the ENLIL and we get the following conditions, there MIGHT just be a chance (and of course, clear skies!).

A Kp5 Aurora with a sufficient substorm strength of 500+ nT could indeed become faintly visible right above our heads….

but the stars however literally need to align for this to happen, so start sending your prayers!

Two CME's impacted earth earlier today with medium to strong activity at the moment. IF conditions persist, and during strong substorm activity over the course of the evening, then Aurora's may be observed across:

Iceland: above Reykjavík and toward the southern horizon beginning from 23:30 to about 2:30 with darkest episode between 01:00 - 02:00. Southern Iceland will be slightly darker, Northern Iceland slightly lighter and less visible.

Northern UK and Mid-Scandinavia: Visible in Northern Scotland over the northern horizon from 23:30. Potential visibility, if strong, through a camera in Northern England (Northumberland region) from 23:00 onwards if Kp5+ persist.

Canada & Northern Contiguous US: Churchill Manitoba from 23:00 (11PM) above or toward southern horizon if current conditions continue. Northern US states from 21:30 (9:30PM) if conditions persist at Kp5 or higher. Fairbanks Alaska: similar latitude to Iceland, best chance between 00:00 - 2:00 if conditions remain high.

Good luck!

In my early days of Aurora hunting I was out as often as I could around Reykjavík (I don't own a car) and on clear nights you can see amazing Northern Lights from anywhere in town if you're away from street lights. This substorm was huge and luckily I was there at the right time. The city in front is Seltjarnarnes. The ocean was super quiet that night and reflects the lights wonderfully.

Seltjarnarnes, Iceland
30-10-2021, 22:50
Sony A7III, Tamron 17-28mm, F2.8 10s ISO 400

21-09-2023, Grótta Iceland, 4/5s at F1.4 ISO 1250

The weather was no good here in Reykjavík but using some online webcams near Flúðir (Landhótel owns them, a public tool, I don't have any association with the Hotel at all,) allows us to track and watch them from home. EmeraldSkies is my own tool which I've created specifically for wider Reykjavík (and similar latitudes) but simply showcasing it here to justify the reasoning for tonight's display. It's a free public tool after all.

As it's measuring the real-time rolling Kp via the Ovation Model and overlaid on the NOAA SWPC visibility lines, empirically I've established that Auroras above Kp3-4 tend to appear over and above Reykjavík and start moving towards the outer edge of the oval (south of Iceland) so during Kp4+ Auroras, we usually get to see the substorms develop over on the ESE horizon (left webcam on Landhótel). As was the case tonight, this also happens to be the darkest part of the sky (though the moon was very bright also). Because of that combination, it's quite possible to spot Auroras in early August even if they might still be a tad underwhelming. Unique nonetheless.

The Aurora Pulse data is provided by LRV and TRO mags from TGO/HI and lag a few minutes behind, but are a good guide for substorm activity in our part of the world! Hope this is useful for you chasers and happy Aurora hunting as we enter this new season!

So earlier this morning it was finally time again for the Aurora Borealis to return to Iceland. Or in more accurate terms, for nights to return. The Aurora will always be doing its things, whether we can see it or not is a different story.

Last night's CME impacts meant that the Aurora Oval was pushed further south and starting from a Kp3-4 we can then expect individual arcs and substorm activity to display toward the southern horizon when viewed from Reykjavík. This is the darkest part of the night in early August, and as skies will gradually darken over the next coming days and weeks weaker Auroras will start to show toward the northern horizon also.

Cheers to the new season 🥳

Today was one of those days where Icelandic weather really confused the forecasts. Since the early morning both vedur.is and windy.com reported clear skies and no cloud cover, but the reality was FAR from it. Medium and low cloud were covering large parts of the capital area and the only forecast that got it right was weatherandradar.com. It tracked the medium cloud cover throughout the day.

And truth be told - no single forecast will ever get it completely right. That's why it's important to not rely on just one. Many people locally will tell you the local MET office is the best, but in my personal experience that simply hasn't been the case. All three forecasts I'm showing here will have days where they are more or less accurate (and sometimes they fail hard, like today). So keep this in mind when you're visiting iceland and things don't quite seem right on one forecast.

Any other forecasts for you that have worked well here?

As I just saw the topic of "which country is best" I thought I'd throw in my stats as a Northern Lights guide to show you our success rate for the 2025-26 season by month. Overall almost 88% success rate across the board here in Reykjavík.

September / October were the cloudiest months where we could only head out every other day due to the weather, but our success rate of spotting the lights was pretty high at almost 94% of the time.

December and March were the worst months for weather and/or activity where we attempted 2 out of 3 nights on average but got either low activity (especially in December) or cloud cover surprised us and we couldn't see anything.

Weather in Iceland can be unpredictable at the best of times so this isn't a guarantee that every month will be like this moving forward. Just to give you all some insights into what the season looked like for me and my guests.

The photo is from 2nd September and the night started out very cloudy but we ended up finding some pretty amazing clear skies and amazing auroras.

Taken in September of 2024, this Aurora was created by a rather large solar storm that had been sweeping over earth throughout most of the day. By the time we went out, things had calmed down a bit but the lingering effects from throughout the day kept the activity strong and long lasting, with amazing colours.

Sony A7IV, Sigma 20mm F1.4
1s ISO1000 F1.4
Litla Kaffistofa, Iceland

This Aurora happened several days on October 6 before the big CME arrived on October 10th 2024. We are looking toward the southern and southwestern horizon. This substorm's arc is much further south than it appears, probably between Vík and the Faroe Islands. My friend from Hirtshals, Denmark has the same shot but from the south looking north (same time) and it's at a similar distance to the horizon as ours. The reds were extraordinarily vivid to the naked eye and the display probably lasted a good 25 minutes from beginning to end. Still one of my favourites of all times!

Shot on Sony A7IV with a Sigma 20mm F1.4 at ISO12,800

In my early days of Aurora hunting I was out as often as I could around Reykjavík (I don't own a car) and on clear nights you can see amazing Northern Lights from anywhere in town if you're away from street lights. This substorm was huge and luckily I was there at the right time. The city in front is Seltjarnarnes. The ocean was super quiet that night and reflects the lights wonderfully.

Seltjarnarnes, Iceland
30-10-2021, 22:50
Sony A7III, Tamron 17-28mm, F2.8 10s ISO 400

A general overview of how the total eclipse will unfold and from where it’s visible.