Streymoy, Faroe Islands
Northern lights in Tórshavn
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 Atlantic/Faroe
Storm level needed
Tórshavn sits at 62.01N 6.77W in Streymoy, Faroe Islands. The IGRF-14 centered dipole puts Tórshavn at 64.4 degrees geomagnetic latitude, 2.4 degrees closer to the magnetic pole than its map latitude suggests. Tórshavn sits at 64.4 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 Isle of Lewis (422 km), Elgin, Scotland (522 km), Inverness (524 km). Isle of Lewis sits 3.7 degrees lower on the dipole, Kp 3 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 28 to July 14 the sun never reaches -6 degrees, so 48 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 1 to May 10 across New Year, 283 days in 2026. Tórshavn's longest night of the year, Dec 18, has 16 h 29 min of civil night.
Solar midnight at Tórshavn, when the sun is lowest, falls at 00:22 on local clocks on December 15 and 01:27 on June 15. That is 22 min after midnight in December and 1 h 27 min after midnight in June, the gap set by daylight saving and the equation of time. So at Tórshavn 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 | 15.7 h | 12.0 h | 87% | 2.0 h | |
| Feb | 13.3 h | 9.8 h | 87% | 1.7 h | |
| Mar | 10.6 h | 6.9 h | 86% | 1.5 h | |
| Apr | 7.3 h | 0.0 h | 84% | 1.2 h | |
| May | 3.4 h | 0.0 h | 85% | 0.5 h | |
| Jun | 0.0 h | 0.0 h | 88% | 0.0 h | |
| Jul | 0.7 h | 0.0 h | 90% | 0.1 h | |
| Aug | 6.0 h | 0.0 h | 86% | 0.8 h | |
| Sep | 9.4 h | 5.3 h | 85% | 1.4 h | |
| Oct | 12.4 h | 8.9 h | 86% | 1.7 h | |
| Nov | 15.0 h | 11.4 h | 86% | 2.1 h | |
| Dec | 16.4 h | 12.6 h | 87% | 2.1 hbest |
By the 15th-of-the-month sample, December is the darkest month at Tórshavn with 16.4 hours of civil night and June the lightest at 0.0. Across the year Tórshavn gets 3,345 hours of civil night. Astronomical night at Tórshavn, the sun 18 degrees or more below the horizon, lasts 12.6 hours on December 15.
NASA POWER's 2001 to 2020 all-hours climatology puts mean cloud amount for the 1 degree cell around Tórshavn at 86% across the year, from 84% in April to 90% in July. In the months with at least 4 hours of civil night Tórshavn averages 86%.
Multiplying civil night by the clear share of the sky gives December the best score, 2.1 hours, ahead of November at 2.1. Tórshavn's equinox months score 1.5 in March and 1.4 in September, the weeks SWPC links with larger storms.
Kp history
Quiet levels are enough at Tórshavn: 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 Atlantic/Faroe dates. 15 of the 30 nights at Tórshavn have at least 2 moon-free dark hours inside 10 PM to 2 AM, and Oct 6 has the most at 4 h. Tonight Tórshavn has 11 h 8 min of civil night, 0 min of it with the moon down.
- 2
57% lit
0.0 h
- 3
46% lit
1.7 h
- 4
34% lit
3.8 h
- 5
24% lit
5.7 h
- 6
15% lit
7.6 h
- 7
8% lit
9.3 h
- 8
3% lit
11.0 h
- 9
1% lit
11.8 h
- 10
0% lit
11.9 h
- 11
2% lit
12.0 h
- 12
6% lit
12.1 h
- 13
11% lit
12.2 h
- 14
18% lit
12.3 h
- 15
26% lit
12.4 h
- 16
34% lit
12.5 h
- 17
43% lit
11.3 h
- 18
53% lit
9.6 h
- 19
62% lit
7.9 h
- 20
72% lit
6.3 h
- 21
80% lit
4.8 h
- 22
88% lit
3.3 h
- 23
94% lit
1.7 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
0.7 h
- 31
60% lit
2.7 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 Faroe Islands
On December 15 Tórshavn gets 16.4 hours of civil night, 1st longest of 1 in Faroe Islands, where the median is 16.4.
Questions
- Can you see the northern lights in Tórshavn?
- Tórshavn sits at 64.4 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 Tórshavn still decides it.
- When is it dark enough in Tórshavn?
- Civil night, the sun at -6 degrees or lower, is missing from May 28 to Jul 14. Tonight has 11 h 8 min of it.
- What is the best month for aurora in Tórshavn?
- December, by civil night at Tórshavn times the clear share of the sky from NASA POWER's 2001 to 2020 average.
- How cloudy is Tórshavn in the dark months?
- About 86% mean cloud amount over Tórshavn 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 Tórshavn?
- 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
Tórshavn by month
Region and comparisons