Nordland, Norway
Northern lights in Mo i Rana
Answer
Tonight
Waiting on darkness
It is not civil-dark yet. The next dusk is listed below.
Observed 11:55 UTC, forecast 13:26 UTC, 91 min lead
Clock times in Europe/Oslo
Storm level needed
Mo i Rana sits at 66.31N 14.14E in Nordland, Norway. The IGRF-14 centered dipole puts Mo i Rana at 65.2 degrees geomagnetic latitude, 1.2 degrees farther from the magnetic pole than its map latitude suggests. Mo i Rana sits at 65.2 degrees geomagnetic, inside SWPC's 60 to 75 degree band, where aurora can be seen on more than half of all nights. No storm is needed: by SWPC's rule the average oval edge is overhead at Kp 1.
"The best place to observe the aurora is under an oval shaped region between the north and south latitudes of about 60 and 75 degrees. At these polar latitudes, the aurora can be observed more than half of the nights of a given year."
The nearest other Glow towns are Bodø (108 km), Harstad (294 km), Kiruna (314 km). Bodø sits 0.9 degrees higher on the dipole, Kp 0 against 1 here.
Approximate: SWPC calls its Kp to latitude rule an average, and a centered dipole can differ by a degree from fuller field models. How the storm level is matched
The year in darkness
From May 8 to August 3 the sun never reaches -6 degrees, so 88 nights in 2026 have no civil darkness at all. SWPC puts it plainly: "It must also be dark so during the summer months at auroral latitudes, the midnight sun prevents auroral observations." Glow's dark season, at least 4 hours of civil night between 18:00 and 06:00, runs from August 14 to April 27 across New Year, 257 days in 2026. Mo i Rana's longest night of the year, Dec 18, has 17 h 44 min of civil night.
Solar midnight at Mo i Rana, when the sun is lowest, falls at 23:59 on local clocks on December 15 and 01:04 on June 15. That is 1 min before midnight in December and 1 h 4 min after midnight in June, the gap set by daylight saving and the equation of time. So at Mo i Rana the darkest hour sits near the middle of SWPC's 10 PM to 2 AM window in winter.
Month by month
| Month | Night | Civil | Cloud | Clear dark | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 16.7 h | 12.2 h | 78% | 3.7 hbest | |
| Feb | 13.7 h | 9.6 h | 80% | 2.7 h | |
| Mar | 10.4 h | 5.9 h | 79% | 2.2 h | |
| Apr | 6.2 h | 0.0 h | 79% | 1.3 h | |
| May | 0.0 h | 0.0 h | 80% | 0.0 h | |
| Jun | 0.0 h | 0.0 h | 81% | 0.0 h | |
| Jul | 0.0 h | 0.0 h | 79% | 0.0 h | |
| Aug | 4.3 h | 0.0 h | 78% | 0.9 h | |
| Sep | 8.9 h | 3.5 h | 82% | 1.6 h | |
| Oct | 12.5 h | 8.5 h | 83% | 2.1 h | |
| Nov | 15.8 h | 11.5 h | 79% | 3.3 h | |
| Dec | 17.7 h | 12.9 h | 80% | 3.5 h |
By the 15th-of-the-month sample, December is the darkest month at Mo i Rana with 17.7 hours of civil night and May the lightest at 0.0. Across the year Mo i Rana gets 3,212 hours of civil night. Astronomical night at Mo i Rana, the sun 18 degrees or more below the horizon, lasts 12.9 hours on December 15.
NASA POWER's 2001 to 2020 all-hours climatology puts mean cloud amount for the 1 degree cell around Mo i Rana at 80% across the year, from 78% in January to 83% in October. In the months with at least 4 hours of civil night Mo i Rana averages 80%, against a median of 77% for Glow towns in Norway.
Multiplying civil night by the clear share of the sky gives January the best score, 3.7 hours, ahead of December at 3.5. Mo i Rana's equinox months score 2.2 in March and 1.6 in September, the weeks SWPC links with larger storms.
Kp history
Quiet levels are enough at Mo i Rana: a 3-hour Kp of 1 or more occurred on 96% of days from 1996 to 2025 in the GFZ Potsdam record. The days that matter are storm days, Kp 5 or more: 10% of all days, most often in September.
Share of UTC days in each calendar month whose highest 3-hour Kp reached Kp 5. Kp history by year
Moon, next 30 nights
Over the 30 nights from Oct 2, the new moon falls on Oct 10 and the full moon on Oct 26, in Europe/Oslo dates. 15 of the 30 nights at Mo i Rana have at least 2 moon-free dark hours inside 10 PM to 2 AM, and Oct 6 has the most at 4 h. Tonight Mo i Rana has 11 h 1 min of civil night, 0 min of it with the moon down.
- 2
57% lit
0.0 h
- 3
46% lit
0.0 h
- 4
35% lit
2.1 h
- 5
25% lit
4.9 h
- 6
16% lit
7.1 h
- 7
8% lit
9.1 h
- 8
3% lit
10.9 h
- 9
1% lit
11.8 h
- 10
0% lit
11.9 h
- 11
2% lit
12.1 h
- 12
5% lit
12.2 h
- 13
11% lit
12.3 h
- 14
17% lit
12.4 h
- 15
25% lit
12.5 h
- 16
34% lit
12.6 h
- 17
43% lit
12.8 h
- 18
52% lit
12.8 h
- 19
62% lit
9.1 h
- 20
71% lit
7.1 h
- 21
80% lit
5.3 h
- 22
87% lit
3.6 h
- 23
94% lit
1.8 h
- 24
98% lit
0.0 h
- 25
100% lit
0.0 h
- 26
99% lit
0.0 h
- 27
95% lit
0.0 h
- 28
89% lit
0.0 h
- 29
81% lit
0.0 h
- 30
71% lit
0.0 h
- 31
60% lit
0.0 h
Each cell is the night that starts on that date. Hours are civil-dark time with the moon below the horizon; the green rule scales with them. Green outline: new moon. Bone outline: full moon.
Within Norway
Among the 2 Glow towns in Nordland, Mo i Rana ranks 2nd by dipole latitude against a regional median of 65.6 degrees; Bodø sits highest at 66.0. Among the 32 Glow towns in Norway, Mo i Rana ranks 5th by dipole latitude against a national median of 59.9 degrees; Tromsø sits highest at 67.5. On December 15 Mo i Rana gets 17.7 hours of civil night, 5th longest of 32 in Norway, where the median is 16.0.
Questions
- Can you see the northern lights in Mo i Rana?
- Mo i Rana sits at 65.2 degrees geomagnetic, inside SWPC's 60 to 75 degree band, where aurora can be seen on more than half of all nights. No storm is needed: by SWPC's rule the average oval edge is overhead at Kp 1. Clear, dark sky over Mo i Rana still decides it.
- When is it dark enough in Mo i Rana?
- Civil night, the sun at -6 degrees or lower, is missing from May 8 to Aug 3. Tonight has 11 h 1 min of it.
- What is the best month for aurora in Mo i Rana?
- January, by civil night at Mo i Rana times the clear share of the sky from NASA POWER's 2001 to 2020 average.
- How cloudy is Mo i Rana in the dark months?
- About 80% mean cloud amount over Mo i Rana in the months with at least 4 hours of civil night, from NASA POWER's 2001 to 2020 all-hours climatology.
- How often is activity high enough for Mo i Rana?
- Almost always: the average oval edge is overhead at Kp 1. Storm days, Kp 5 or more, made up 10% of days from 1996 to 2025 in the GFZ record.
Nearby and related
Nearest Glow towns
Mo i Rana by month
Region and comparisons