Northwest Territories, Canada
Northern lights in Yellowknife
Answer
Tonight
Darkness window open
Civil darkness has begun.
Observed 10:53 UTC, forecast 12:26 UTC, 93 min lead
Clock times in America/Edmonton
Storm level needed
Yellowknife sits at 62.45N 114.37W in Northwest Territories, Canada. The IGRF-14 centered dipole puts Yellowknife at 68.5 degrees geomagnetic latitude, 6.1 degrees closer to the magnetic pole than its map latitude suggests. Yellowknife sits at 68.5 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 0.
"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 Fort McMurray (659 km), Fort St. John (781 km), Grande Prairie (849 km). Fort McMurray sits 5.2 degrees lower on the dipole, Kp 2 against 0 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 25 to July 16 the sun never reaches -6 degrees, so 53 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 2 to May 8 across New Year, 280 days in 2026. Yellowknife's longest night of the year, Dec 20, has 16 h 36 min of civil night.
Solar midnight at Yellowknife, when the sun is lowest, falls at 01:33 on local clocks on December 15 and 01:38 on June 15. That is 1 h 33 min after midnight in December and 1 h 38 min after midnight in June, the gap set by daylight saving and the equation of time. So at Yellowknife the darkest hour sits late in SWPC's 10 PM to 2 AM window.
Month by month
| Month | Night | Civil | Cloud | Clear dark | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 15.8 h | 12.0 h | 56% | 7.0 h | |
| Feb | 13.3 h | 9.8 h | 51% | 6.5 h | |
| Mar | 10.6 h | 6.8 h | 49% | 5.4 h | |
| Apr | 7.2 h | 0.0 h | 58% | 3.0 h | |
| May | 3.0 h | 0.0 h | 66% | 1.0 h | |
| Jun | 0.0 h | 0.0 h | 64% | 0.0 h | |
| Jul | 0.0 h | 0.0 h | 68% | 0.0 h | |
| Aug | 5.9 h | 0.0 h | 65% | 2.1 h | |
| Sep | 9.4 h | 5.3 h | 66% | 3.2 h | |
| Oct | 12.4 h | 8.9 h | 81% | 2.4 h | |
| Nov | 15.1 h | 11.4 h | 75% | 3.8 h | |
| Dec | 16.6 h | 12.6 h | 58% | 7.0 hbest |
By the 15th-of-the-month sample, December is the darkest month at Yellowknife with 16.6 hours of civil night and June the lightest at 0.0. Across the year Yellowknife gets 3,327 hours of civil night. Astronomical night at Yellowknife, 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 Yellowknife at 63% across the year, from 49% in March to 81% in October. In the months with at least 4 hours of civil night Yellowknife averages 62%, against a median of 67% for Glow towns in Canada.
Multiplying civil night by the clear share of the sky gives December the best score, 7.0 hours, ahead of January at 7.0. Yellowknife's equinox months score 5.4 in March and 3.2 in September, the weeks SWPC links with larger storms.
Kp history
Quiet levels are enough at Yellowknife: a 3-hour Kp of 0 or more occurred on 100% 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 1, the new moon falls on Oct 10 and the full moon on Oct 25, in America/Edmonton dates. 15 of the 30 nights at Yellowknife have at least 2 moon-free dark hours inside 10 PM to 2 AM, and Oct 6 has the most at 4 h. Tonight Yellowknife has 11 h 3 min of civil night, 0 min of it with the moon down.
- 1
65% lit
0.0 h
- 2
54% lit
0.0 h
- 3
42% lit
2.1 h
- 4
31% lit
4.3 h
- 5
21% lit
6.3 h
- 6
13% lit
8.1 h
- 7
7% lit
9.8 h
- 8
2% lit
11.5 h
- 9
0% lit
11.8 h
- 10
1% lit
11.9 h
- 11
3% lit
12.0 h
- 12
7% lit
12.1 h
- 13
13% lit
12.2 h
- 14
20% lit
12.3 h
- 15
28% lit
12.4 h
- 16
37% lit
12.5 h
- 17
46% lit
11.0 h
- 18
56% lit
9.2 h
- 19
65% lit
7.5 h
- 20
74% lit
5.9 h
- 21
82% lit
4.4 h
- 22
90% lit
2.8 h
- 23
95% lit
1.2 h
- 24
99% lit
0.0 h
- 25
100% lit
0.0 h
- 26
98% lit
0.0 h
- 27
94% lit
0.0 h
- 28
87% lit
0.0 h
- 29
78% lit
0.0 h
- 30
68% lit
1.1 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 Canada
Among the 130 Glow towns in Canada, Yellowknife ranks 1st by dipole latitude against a national median of 55.3 degrees, the highest of them. On December 15 Yellowknife gets 16.6 hours of civil night, 1st longest of 130 in Canada, where the median is 14.2.
Questions
- Can you see the northern lights in Yellowknife?
- Yellowknife sits at 68.5 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 0. Clear, dark sky over Yellowknife still decides it.
- When is it dark enough in Yellowknife?
- Civil night, the sun at -6 degrees or lower, is missing from May 25 to Jul 16. Tonight has 11 h 3 min of it.
- What is the best month for aurora in Yellowknife?
- December, by civil night at Yellowknife times the clear share of the sky from NASA POWER's 2001 to 2020 average.
- How cloudy is Yellowknife in the dark months?
- About 62% mean cloud amount over Yellowknife 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 Yellowknife?
- Almost always: the average oval edge is overhead at Kp 0. Storm days, Kp 5 or more, made up 10% of days from 1996 to 2025 in the GFZ record.
- Why is there no live cloud forecast for Yellowknife?
- NWS gridpoint skyCover stops at the US border. The Yellowknife page pairs darkness and the OVATION cell with NASA POWER's long-term cloud average, labelled as an average.
- Which time zone does the page use?
- America/Yellowknife, with Canada's daylight saving rules for that zone.
Nearby and related
Nearest Glow towns
Yellowknife by month
Region and comparisons