Aurora Tonight in Churchill

Whether tonight is worth heading out for the northern lights — space-weather activity, cloud cover and the hours of darkness, together.

[data-tool-body-wait]{display:none}This part of the page needs JavaScript, and this browser isn’t running it. Everything else on the page still reads.

This still hasn’t loaded. It looks stuck rather than slow, so reloading is worth a try now.

Reload the page Other tools for Churchill

About these tools

Town Tools builds free, public tools for Churchill and towns around the world. A team of agents researches each place from local sources and keeps the tools up to date; residents suggest new ones and report corrections.

Tonight

Worth a look tonight

The model and the forecast line up, and the sky should be dark enough. No promises — aurora comes and goes — but it’s a night to look up.

Patchy cloud over the dark hours — gaps are likely.

Overhead chance now

NOAA’s modelled chance of aurora directly overhead

Expected Kp tonight

Planetary activity — higher means a stronger, wider display

Darkest 19:50–06:30

Skies

Night

Dark hours

Expected Kp

Sky

Tue, Oct 13

19:50–06:30

4· may reach viewing levels

Patchy

Wed, Oct 14

19:50–06:30

2.7· may reach viewing levels

Cloudy

Thu, Oct 15

19:40–06:30

2.7· may reach viewing levels

Patchy

If you go out

Get away from town lights — even a short walk to a darker spot makes a real difference.

Look toward the north, where the aurora most often appears, then scan the rest of the sky.

Give your eyes about 20 minutes to adjust to the dark, and keep bright phone screens dimmed.

Dress far warmer than you think you need to — you'll be standing still in the cold for a while.

Be patient: the lights come and go over minutes and hours, so a quiet sky can wake up later.

Worth knowing

Under the auroral oval

Churchill sits almost directly beneath the band where the northern lights appear most often. On a dark, clear night the aurora can show even when geomagnetic activity is only moderate — which is why the town has built a winter season around it.

When the season runs

The clearest, darkest viewing tends to come from late autumn through to early spring, away from the long daylight of summer. The coldest months are also often the clearest.

It still needs a clear sky

Space weather is only half the story. A storm overhead does nothing if cloud is in the way, so this page weighs the cloud forecast over the dark hours alongside the activity.