Where in New Brunswick is best for the aurora?

By geomagnetic latitude, Edmundston at 56.6°. No town sits at 60 degrees or more, so every town needs some activity.

Which town in New Brunswick has the longest December night?

Edmundston, with 14.2 hours of civil night on December 15.

Which town in New Brunswick has the clearest dark season?

Fredericton, with 65% 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 New Brunswick?

January for 3 of 6 towns, by civil night times the clear share of the sky. Each town page gives its own month.

Canada · 8 towns

Aurora towns in New Brunswick

Answer

Glow tracks 8 towns in New Brunswick, Canada. They sit between 54.4° at Saint John and 56.6° at Edmundston on the IGRF-14 dipole. The regional median, 55.2 degrees, is 0.1 degrees below the median for Canada.

55.2°

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 Miramichi and Lutes Mountain, 0.9 degrees. 3 neighbouring pairs sit within 0.5 degrees of each other, close enough that the order between them means little.

Of the 6 indexed towns in New Brunswick, 5 sit between 55 and 60 degrees, where G1 (Kp 5) or less usually brings aurora into view; 1 sit below 55 degrees and need a G2 or stronger storm by NOAA's typical latitudes.

Ranked by geomagnetic latitude

Dipole latitude, highest first
Rank	Town	Value
1	Edmundston	56.6°
2	Miramichi	56.1°
3	Lutes Mountain	55.3°
4	Moncton	55.2°
5	Fredericton	55.1°
6	Saint John	54.4°

Ranked by December darkness

On December 15 the median town gets 14.1 hours of civil night, against 14.2 nationally. Edmundston has the most at 14.2 hours and Saint John the least at 14.0. Every town keeps some civil darkness through the June solstice.

Civil night on December 15, longest first
Rank	Town	Value
1	Edmundston	14.2 h
2	Miramichi	14.2 h
3	Lutes Mountain	14.1 h
4	Moncton	14.1 h
5	Fredericton	14.1 h
6	Saint John	14.0 h

Ranked by clear dark season

NASA POWER's 2001 to 2020 climatology puts median cloud amount in the dark months at 66%, against 67% nationally. Fredericton is clearest at 65% and Edmundston cloudiest at 67%. 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	Fredericton	65%
2	Saint John	65%
3	Miramichi	66%
4	Lutes Mountain	67%
5	Moncton	67%
6	Edmundston	67%

Multiplying civil night by the clear share of the sky, January comes out best for 3 of the 6 towns and September for 3. SWPC notes a tendency toward larger storms near the equinoxes, which this score does not include.

Every town

8 towns in New Brunswick
Town	Dipole	Storm needed	Dec 15 night	Dark-month cloud	Best month
Edmundston	56.6°	G1 or less	14.2 h	67%	Jan
Miramichi	56.1°	G1 or less	14.2 h	66%	Sep
Lutes Mountain	55.3°	G1 or less	14.1 h	67%	Sep
Moncton	55.2°	G1 or less	14.1 h	67%	Sep
Dieppe *	55.2°	G1 or less	14.1 h	67%	Sep
Riverview *	55.2°	G1 or less	14.1 h	67%	Sep
Fredericton	55.1°	G1 or less	14.1 h	65%	Jan
Saint John	54.4°	G2 or more	14.0 h	65%	Jan

* 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 New Brunswick is best for the aurora?: By geomagnetic latitude, Edmundston at 56.6°. No town sits at 60 degrees or more, so every town needs some activity.
Which town in New Brunswick has the longest December night?: Edmundston, with 14.2 hours of civil night on December 15.
Which town in New Brunswick has the clearest dark season?: Fredericton, with 65% 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 New Brunswick?: January for 3 of 6 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.