Where in Alberta is best for the aurora?

By geomagnetic latitude, Fort McMurray at 63.4°. 4 towns sit at 60 degrees or more, where no storm is needed.

Which town in Alberta has the longest December night?

Fort McMurray, with 15.4 hours of civil night on December 15.

Which town in Alberta has the clearest dark season?

Lethbridge, with 63% mean cloud amount in the months with at least 4 hours of civil night (NASA POWER, 2001 to 2020).

What is the best month for aurora in Alberta?

December for 8 of 17 towns, by civil night times the clear share of the sky. Each town page gives its own month.

Canada · 19 towns

Aurora towns in Alberta

Answer

Glow tracks 19 towns in Alberta, Canada. They sit between 56.3° at Lethbridge and 63.4° at Fort McMurray on the IGRF-14 dipole. The regional median, 58.7 degrees, is 3.4 degrees above the median for Canada.

58.7°

median geomagnetic latitude

IGRF-14 dipole, SunCalc, NASA POWER

Where the towns sit

60° geomagnetic or more, no storm needed55° to 60°, G1 or lessbelow 55°, storm needed

The widest gap in the dipole ranking falls between Fort McMurray and Grande Prairie, 2.5 degrees. 11 neighbouring pairs sit within 0.5 degrees of each other, close enough that the order between them means little.

Of the 17 indexed towns in Alberta, 4 sit at 60 degrees geomagnetic or more, in or poleward of SWPC's 60 to 75 degree band, where no storm is needed; 13 sit between 55 and 60 degrees, where G1 (Kp 5) or less usually brings aurora into view.

Ranked by geomagnetic latitude

Dipole latitude, highest first
Rank	Town	Value
1	Fort McMurray	63.4°
2	Grande Prairie	60.9°
3	Lloydminster	60.2°
4	Edmonton	60.0°
5	Sherwood Park	60.0°
6	Spruce Grove	59.9°
7	Leduc	59.7°
8	Camrose	59.6°
9	Sylvan Lake	58.7°
10	Red Deer	58.7°
11	Airdrie, Alberta	57.7°
12	Cochrane	57.6°
13	Chestermere	57.5°
14	Calgary	57.5°
15	Okotoks	57.2°
16	Medicine Hat	56.9°
17	Lethbridge	56.3°

Ranked by December darkness

On December 15 the median town gets 14.8 hours of civil night, against 14.2 nationally. Fort McMurray has the most at 15.4 hours and Medicine Hat the least at 14.5. Every town keeps some civil darkness through the June solstice.

Civil night on December 15, longest first
Rank	Town	Value
1	Fort McMurray	15.4 h
2	Grande Prairie	15.2 h
3	Edmonton	15.0 h
4	Sherwood Park	15.0 h
5	Spruce Grove	15.0 h
6	Lloydminster	14.9 h
7	Leduc	14.9 h
8	Camrose	14.9 h
9	Sylvan Lake	14.8 h
10	Red Deer	14.8 h
11	Airdrie, Alberta	14.7 h
12	Cochrane	14.7 h
13	Chestermere	14.6 h
14	Calgary	14.6 h
15	Okotoks	14.6 h
16	Medicine Hat	14.5 h
17	Lethbridge	14.5 h

Ranked by clear dark season

NASA POWER's 2001 to 2020 climatology puts median cloud amount in the dark months at 67%, against 67% nationally. Lethbridge is clearest at 63% and Sylvan Lake cloudiest at 70%. These are all-hours averages for 1 degree cells, not forecasts.

Mean cloud amount in months with 4 hours or more of civil night, clearest first
Rank	Town	Value
1	Lethbridge	63%
2	Medicine Hat	64%
3	Lloydminster	65%
4	Okotoks	66%
5	Edmonton	67%
6	Sherwood Park	67%
7	Spruce Grove	67%
8	Leduc	67%
9	Camrose	67%
10	Chestermere	67%
11	Red Deer	67%
12	Airdrie, Alberta	67%
13	Cochrane	67%
14	Calgary	67%
15	Grande Prairie	67%
16	Fort McMurray	68%
17	Sylvan Lake	70%

Multiplying civil night by the clear share of the sky, December comes out best for 8 of the 17 towns and January for 5. SWPC notes a tendency toward larger storms near the equinoxes, which this score does not include.

Every town

19 towns in Alberta
Town	Dipole	Storm needed	Dec 15 night	Dark-month cloud	Best month
Fort McMurray	63.4°	none	15.4 h	68%	Jan
Grande Prairie	60.9°	none	15.2 h	67%	Dec
Lloydminster	60.2°	none	14.9 h	65%	Feb
St. Albert *	60.1°	none	15.0 h	67%	Jan
Edmonton	60.0°	none	15.0 h	67%	Jan
Sherwood Park	60.0°	G1 or less	15.0 h	67%	Dec
Spruce Grove	59.9°	G1 or less	15.0 h	67%	Dec
Stony Plain *	59.9°	G1 or less	15.0 h	69%	Dec
Leduc	59.7°	G1 or less	14.9 h	67%	Jan
Camrose	59.6°	G1 or less	14.9 h	67%	Jan
Sylvan Lake	58.7°	G1 or less	14.8 h	70%	Dec
Red Deer	58.7°	G1 or less	14.8 h	67%	Jan
Airdrie, Alberta	57.7°	G1 or less	14.7 h	67%	Dec
Cochrane	57.6°	G1 or less	14.7 h	67%	Dec
Chestermere	57.5°	G1 or less	14.6 h	67%	Sep
Calgary	57.5°	G1 or less	14.6 h	67%	Dec
Okotoks	57.2°	G1 or less	14.6 h	66%	Sep
Medicine Hat	56.9°	G1 or less	14.5 h	64%	Sep
Lethbridge	56.3°	G1 or less	14.5 h	63%	Dec

* Within 15 km of a larger town with the same rounded figures; its page points to that town. Cloud: NASA POWER mean for months with at least 4 hours of civil night.

Questions

Where in Alberta is best for the aurora?: By geomagnetic latitude, Fort McMurray at 63.4°. 4 towns sit at 60 degrees or more, where no storm is needed.
Which town in Alberta has the longest December night?: Fort McMurray, with 15.4 hours of civil night on December 15.
Which town in Alberta has the clearest dark season?: Lethbridge, with 63% mean cloud amount in the months with at least 4 hours of civil night (NASA POWER, 2001 to 2020).
What is the best month for aurora in Alberta?: December for 8 of 17 towns, by civil night times the clear share of the sky. Each town page gives its own month.

Sources and verification

GeoNames dump (CC BY 4.0)https://download.geonames.org/export/dump/
IGRF-14, NOAA NCEIhttps://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/IAGA/vmod/coeffs/igrf14coeffs.txt
NASA POWER climatologyhttps://power.larc.nasa.gov/docs/services/api/temporal/climatology/

Quoted figures last checked against their sources on 2026-09-30; next review 2026-12-31. Computed figures come from SunCalc and the IGRF-14 dipole as described in the methodology. Every quote is listed in the sources ledger.