Aurora towns in Russia

Of the 77 indexed towns in Russia, 19 sit at 60 degrees geomagnetic or more, in or poleward of SWPC's 60 to 75 degree band, where no storm is needed; 58 sit between 55 and 60 degrees, where G1 (Kp 5) or less usually brings aurora into view.

On December 15 the median town gets 16.7 hours of civil night. Nikel has the most at 19.1 hours and Velikiy Novgorod the least at 15.7. 57 of these towns lose civil darkness altogether around the June solstice; Nikel goes longest, 109 nights.

NASA POWER's 2001 to 2020 climatology puts median cloud amount in the dark months at 77%. Udachny is clearest at 58% and Severomorsk cloudiest at 84%. These are all-hours averages for 1 degree cells, not forecasts.

Multiplying civil night by the clear share of the sky, January comes out best for 28 of the 77 towns and March for 25. SWPC notes a tendency toward larger storms near the equinoxes, which this score does not include.

The towns fall in 14 first-level regions. Leningradskaya Oblast' has 23, Murmansk has 12, Arkhangelskaya has 11, St.-Petersburg has 11. Regions with at least 5 indexed towns have their own page with three rankings.

• Leningradskaya Oblast'23 towns
• Murmansk12 towns
• Arkhangelskaya11 towns
• St.-Petersburg11 towns
• Komi10 towns
• Yamalo-Nenets8 towns
• Karelia6 towns
• Krasnoyarsk Krai4 towns
• Nenets2 towns
• Novgorod Oblast2 towns
• Sakha2 towns
• Chukotka1 towns
• Khanty-Mansia1 towns
• Vologda Oblast1 towns