Where in Ohio is best for the aurora?

By geomagnetic latitude, Toledo at 50.7°. No town sits at 60 degrees or more, so every town needs some activity.

Which town in Ohio has the longest December night?

Toledo, with 13.7 hours of civil night on December 15.

Which town in Ohio has the clearest dark season?

Toledo, with 64% 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 Ohio?

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

United States · 8 towns

Aurora towns in Ohio

Answer

Glow tracks 8 towns in Ohio, United States. They sit between 50.2° at Akron and 50.7° at Toledo on the IGRF-14 dipole. The regional median, 50.5 degrees, is 1.0 degrees below the median for United States.

50.5°

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 Lorain and Youngstown, 0.3 degrees. 4 neighbouring pairs sit within 0.5 degrees of each other, close enough that the order between them means little.

Of the 5 indexed towns in Ohio, 5 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	Toledo	50.7°
2	Cleveland	50.6°
3	Lorain	50.5°
4	Youngstown	50.2°
5	Akron	50.2°

Ranked by December darkness

On December 15 the median town gets 13.7 hours of civil night, against 13.8 nationally. Toledo has the most at 13.7 hours and Akron the least at 13.6. Every town keeps some civil darkness through the June solstice.

Civil night on December 15, longest first
Rank	Town	Value
1	Toledo	13.7 h
2	Cleveland	13.7 h
3	Lorain	13.7 h
4	Youngstown	13.7 h
5	Akron	13.6 h

Ranked by clear dark season

NASA POWER's 2001 to 2020 climatology puts median cloud amount in the dark months at 72%, against 61% nationally. Toledo is clearest at 64% and Lorain cloudiest at 75%. 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	Toledo	64%
2	Youngstown	69%
3	Cleveland	72%
4	Akron	72%
5	Lorain	75%

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

Every town

8 towns in Ohio
Town	Dipole	Storm needed	Dec 15 night	Dark-month cloud	Best month
Toledo	50.7°	G2 or more	13.7 h	64%	Sep
Cleveland	50.6°	G2 or more	13.7 h	72%	Sep
Lakewood, Ohio *	50.6°	G2 or more	13.7 h	72%	Sep
Lorain	50.5°	G2 or more	13.7 h	75%	Sep
Parma *	50.5°	G2 or more	13.7 h	72%	Sep
Elyria *	50.4°	G2 or more	13.7 h	75%	Sep
Youngstown	50.2°	G2 or more	13.7 h	69%	Sep
Akron	50.2°	G2 or more	13.6 h	72%	Sep

* 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 Ohio is best for the aurora?: By geomagnetic latitude, Toledo at 50.7°. No town sits at 60 degrees or more, so every town needs some activity.
Which town in Ohio has the longest December night?: Toledo, with 13.7 hours of civil night on December 15.
Which town in Ohio has the clearest dark season?: Toledo, with 64% 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 Ohio?: September for 5 of 5 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.