Where in Scotland is best for the aurora?

By geomagnetic latitude, Isle of Lewis at 60.8°. 1 towns sit at 60 degrees or more, where no storm is needed.

Which town in Scotland has the longest December night?

Isle of Lewis, with 15.7 hours of civil night on December 15.

Which town in Scotland has the clearest dark season?

Greenock, with 76% 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 Scotland?

November for 18 of 26 towns, by civil night times the clear share of the sky. Each town page gives its own month.

Scotland aurora towns ranked: 59 places

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 Isle of Lewis and Elgin, Scotland, 1.0 degrees. 23 neighbouring pairs sit within 0.5 degrees of each other, close enough that the order between them means little.

Of the 26 indexed towns in Scotland, 1 sit at 60 degrees geomagnetic or more, in or poleward of SWPC's 60 to 75 degree band, where no storm is needed; 25 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	Isle of Lewis	60.8°
2	Elgin, Scotland	59.8°
3	Inverness	59.7°
4	Peterhead	59.4°
5	Fort William	59.3°
6	Aberdeen	59.1°
7	Arbroath	58.6°
8	Perth	58.6°
9	Dundee	58.6°
10	Saint Andrews	58.4°
11	Stirling	58.4°
12	Greenock	58.4°
13	Glenrothes	58.4°
14	Dunfermline	58.3°
15	Kirkcaldy	58.3°
16	Bearsden	58.3°
17	Falkirk	58.3°
18	Cumbernauld	58.2°
19	Johnstone	58.2°
20	Glasgow	58.2°
21	Livingston	58.1°
22	Edinburgh	58.1°
23	Meikle Earnock	58.1°
24	Kilmarnock	58.0°
25	Ayr	57.9°
26	Dumfries	57.3°

Ranked by December darkness

On December 15 the median town gets 15.3 hours of civil night, against 15.0 nationally. Isle of Lewis has the most at 15.7 hours and Ayr the least at 15.2. Every town keeps some civil darkness through the June solstice.

Civil night on December 15, longest first
Rank	Town	Value
1	Isle of Lewis	15.7 h
2	Elgin, Scotland	15.6 h
3	Inverness	15.6 h
4	Peterhead	15.6 h
5	Aberdeen	15.5 h
6	Fort William	15.4 h
7	Arbroath	15.4 h
8	Perth	15.4 h
9	Dundee	15.4 h
10	Saint Andrews	15.4 h
11	Stirling	15.3 h
12	Greenock	15.3 h
13	Glenrothes	15.3 h
14	Dunfermline	15.3 h
15	Kirkcaldy	15.3 h
16	Bearsden	15.3 h
17	Falkirk	15.3 h
18	Cumbernauld	15.3 h
19	Johnstone	15.3 h
20	Glasgow	15.3 h
21	Livingston	15.3 h
22	Edinburgh	15.3 h
23	Meikle Earnock	15.3 h
24	Kilmarnock	15.3 h
25	Ayr	15.2 h
26	Dumfries	15.2 h

Ranked by clear dark season

NASA POWER's 2001 to 2020 climatology puts median cloud amount in the dark months at 79%, against 77% nationally. Greenock is clearest at 76% and Isle of Lewis cloudiest at 85%. 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	Greenock	76%
2	Bearsden	76%
3	Johnstone	76%
4	Glasgow	76%
5	Meikle Earnock	76%
6	Kilmarnock	76%
7	Ayr	76%
8	Cumbernauld	77%
9	Livingston	77%
10	Edinburgh	77%
11	Dumfries	77%
12	Elgin, Scotland	78%
13	Aberdeen	78%
14	Arbroath	79%
15	Perth	79%
16	Dundee	79%
17	Saint Andrews	79%
18	Stirling	80%
19	Glenrothes	80%
20	Dunfermline	80%
21	Kirkcaldy	80%
22	Falkirk	80%
23	Fort William	80%
24	Inverness	81%
25	Peterhead	81%
26	Isle of Lewis	85%

Multiplying civil night by the clear share of the sky, November comes out best for 18 of the 26 towns and December for 7. SWPC notes a tendency toward larger storms near the equinoxes, which this score does not include.

Every town

59 towns in Scotland
Town	Dipole	Storm needed	Dec 15 night	Dark-month cloud	Best month
Isle of Lewis	60.8°	none	15.7 h	85%	Oct
Elgin, Scotland	59.8°	G1 or less	15.6 h	78%	Nov
Inverness	59.7°	G1 or less	15.6 h	81%	Dec
Peterhead	59.4°	G1 or less	15.6 h	81%	Dec
Fort William	59.3°	G1 or less	15.4 h	80%	Dec
Aberdeen	59.1°	G1 or less	15.5 h	78%	Nov
Arbroath	58.6°	G1 or less	15.4 h	79%	Nov
Perth	58.6°	G1 or less	15.4 h	79%	Nov
Dundee	58.6°	G1 or less	15.4 h	79%	Nov
Saint Andrews	58.4°	G1 or less	15.4 h	79%	Nov
Stirling	58.4°	G1 or less	15.3 h	80%	Nov
Alloa *	58.4°	G1 or less	15.3 h	80%	Nov
Greenock	58.4°	G1 or less	15.3 h	76%	Nov
Vale of Leven *	58.4°	G1 or less	15.3 h	76%	Nov
Glenrothes	58.4°	G1 or less	15.3 h	80%	Nov
Dumbarton *	58.3°	G1 or less	15.3 h	76%	Nov
Dunfermline	58.3°	G1 or less	15.3 h	80%	Nov
Kirkcaldy	58.3°	G1 or less	15.3 h	80%	Nov
Erskine *	58.3°	G1 or less	15.3 h	76%	Nov
Bearsden	58.3°	G1 or less	15.3 h	76%	Nov
Clydebank *	58.3°	G1 or less	15.3 h	76%	Nov
Falkirk	58.3°	G1 or less	15.3 h	80%	Nov
Grangemouth *	58.3°	G1 or less	15.3 h	80%	Nov
Kirkintilloch *	58.3°	G1 or less	15.3 h	76%	Nov
Cumbernauld	58.2°	G1 or less	15.3 h	77%	Dec
Bishopbriggs *	58.2°	G1 or less	15.3 h	76%	Nov
Renfrew *	58.2°	G1 or less	15.3 h	76%	Nov
Johnstone	58.2°	G1 or less	15.3 h	76%	Nov
Glasgow	58.2°	G1 or less	15.3 h	76%	Nov
Paisley *	58.2°	G1 or less	15.3 h	76%	Nov
Coatbridge *	58.2°	G1 or less	15.3 h	76%	Nov
Rutherglen *	58.2°	G1 or less	15.3 h	76%	Nov
Barrhead *	58.2°	G1 or less	15.3 h	76%	Nov
Airdrie, Scotland *	58.2°	G1 or less	15.3 h	77%	Dec
Broxburn *	58.1°	G1 or less	15.3 h	77%	Dec
Bathgate *	58.1°	G1 or less	15.3 h	77%	Dec
Viewpark *	58.1°	G1 or less	15.3 h	76%	Nov
Cambuslang *	58.1°	G1 or less	15.3 h	76%	Nov
Newton Mearns *	58.1°	G1 or less	15.3 h	76%	Nov
Livingston	58.1°	G1 or less	15.3 h	77%	Dec
Bellshill *	58.1°	G1 or less	15.3 h	76%	Nov
Edinburgh	58.1°	G1 or less	15.3 h	77%	Dec
Blantyre *	58.1°	G1 or less	15.3 h	76%	Nov
High Blantyre *	58.1°	G1 or less	15.3 h	76%	Nov
East Kilbride *	58.1°	G1 or less	15.3 h	76%	Nov
Motherwell *	58.1°	G1 or less	15.3 h	77%	Dec
Musselburgh *	58.1°	G1 or less	15.3 h	77%	Dec
Hamilton, Scotland *	58.1°	G1 or less	15.3 h	76%	Nov
Kilwinning *	58.1°	G1 or less	15.3 h	76%	Nov
Meikle Earnock	58.1°	G1 or less	15.3 h	76%	Nov
Wishaw *	58.1°	G1 or less	15.3 h	77%	Dec
Larkhall *	58.0°	G1 or less	15.3 h	77%	Dec
Irvine *	58.0°	G1 or less	15.3 h	76%	Nov
Bonnyrigg *	58.0°	G1 or less	15.3 h	77%	Dec
Dalserf *	58.0°	G1 or less	15.3 h	77%	Dec
Penicuik *	58.0°	G1 or less	15.3 h	77%	Dec
Kilmarnock	58.0°	G1 or less	15.3 h	76%	Nov
Ayr	57.9°	G1 or less	15.2 h	76%	Nov
Dumfries	57.3°	G1 or less	15.2 h	77%	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 Scotland is best for the aurora?: By geomagnetic latitude, Isle of Lewis at 60.8°. 1 towns sit at 60 degrees or more, where no storm is needed.
Which town in Scotland has the longest December night?: Isle of Lewis, with 15.7 hours of civil night on December 15.
Which town in Scotland has the clearest dark season?: Greenock, with 76% 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 Scotland?: November for 18 of 26 towns, by civil night times the clear share of the sky. Each town page gives its own month.

Top towns in Scotland

Other regions of United Kingdom

More

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.