Where in Karelia is best for the aurora?

By geomagnetic latitude, Kostomuksha at 61.1°. 1 towns sit at 60 degrees or more, where no storm is needed.

Which town in Karelia has the longest December night?

Kostomuksha, with 17.1 hours of civil night on December 15.

Which town in Karelia has the clearest dark season?

Segezha, with 77% 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 Karelia?

January for 5 of 6 towns, by civil night times the clear share of the sky. Each town page gives its own month.

Russia · 6 towns

Aurora towns in Karelia

Answer

Glow tracks 6 towns in Karelia, Russia. They sit between 57.9° at Petrozavodsk and 61.1° at Kostomuksha on the IGRF-14 dipole. The regional median, 58.7 degrees, is 1.4 degrees above the median for Russia.

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 Kostomuksha and Segezha, 1.3 degrees. 2 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 Karelia, 1 sit at 60 degrees geomagnetic or more, in or poleward of SWPC's 60 to 75 degree band, where no storm is needed; 5 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	Kostomuksha	61.1°
2	Segezha	59.8°
3	Medvezh'yegorsk	59.0°
4	Sortavala	58.4°
5	Kondopoga	58.4°
6	Petrozavodsk	57.9°

Ranked by December darkness

On December 15 the median town gets 16.6 hours of civil night, against 16.7 nationally. Kostomuksha has the most at 17.1 hours and Sortavala the least at 16.4. 6 of these towns lose civil darkness altogether around the June solstice; Kostomuksha goes longest, 74 nights.

Civil night on December 15, longest first
Rank	Town	Value
1	Kostomuksha	17.1 h
2	Segezha	16.9 h
3	Medvezh'yegorsk	16.7 h
4	Kondopoga	16.5 h
5	Sortavala	16.4 h
6	Petrozavodsk	16.4 h

Ranked by clear dark season

NASA POWER's 2001 to 2020 climatology puts median cloud amount in the dark months at 78%, against 77% nationally. Segezha is clearest at 77% and Petrozavodsk cloudiest at 78%. 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	Segezha	77%
2	Medvezh'yegorsk	78%
3	Kondopoga	78%
4	Kostomuksha	78%
5	Sortavala	78%
6	Petrozavodsk	78%

Multiplying civil night by the clear share of the sky, January comes out best for 5 of the 6 towns and March for 1. SWPC notes a tendency toward larger storms near the equinoxes, which this score does not include.

Every town

6 towns in Karelia
Town	Dipole	Storm needed	Dec 15 night	Dark-month cloud	Best month
Kostomuksha	61.1°	none	17.1 h	78%	Jan
Segezha	59.8°	G1 or less	16.9 h	77%	Jan
Medvezh'yegorsk	59.0°	G1 or less	16.7 h	78%	Jan
Sortavala	58.4°	G1 or less	16.4 h	78%	Mar
Kondopoga	58.4°	G1 or less	16.5 h	78%	Jan
Petrozavodsk	57.9°	G1 or less	16.4 h	78%	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 Karelia is best for the aurora?: By geomagnetic latitude, Kostomuksha at 61.1°. 1 towns sit at 60 degrees or more, where no storm is needed.
Which town in Karelia has the longest December night?: Kostomuksha, with 17.1 hours of civil night on December 15.
Which town in Karelia has the clearest dark season?: Segezha, with 77% 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 Karelia?: January for 5 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.