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Northern lights in Iceland tonight: live forecast

Method and site notes by Nimrod Ron · Iceland Lead & Content Curator· Updated 29 Oct 2026

Tonight, 2026-10-28 · updated 09:03 UTC

Unlikely tonight: too much cloud

Kp 2.33 and 66% average cloud even at the clearest site, Lagarfljót, Egilsstaðir (East). Dark from 19:20 to 07:20. Check the three-day outlook below and try again; a clear sky on a quiet night still beats a storm under cloud.

Key facts

Verdict: Unlikely, clearest at Lagarfljót, Egilsstaðir
Kp tonight: Up to 2.33 around 18:00 (NOAA forecast)
Kp right now: 0
Dark hours: 19:20 to 07:20 in Reykjavík (12 h)
Clearest site: Lagarfljót, Egilsstaðir, 66% average cloud, clearest from 23:00
Moon: 91% lit, waning gibbous

Average cloud over tonight's dark hours at nine viewing sites. ● 30% or less, ● up to 60%, ● more. The large dot is tonight's clearest site.

Where the sky is clearest tonight

Nine dark-sky spots, one per region, each a short drive from a town with beds, ranked by cloud over the dark hours. Low cloud is the layer that actually hides the lights; high thin cloud often does not.

Cloud cover during the dark hours, night of 2026-10-28
Site	Region	Cloud	Low cloud	Clearest 3 hours	Sleep in
Lagarfljót, Egilsstaðir	East	66%	33%	23:00 (1%)	Egilsstaðir
Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon	South-east	83%	33%	19:00 (34%)	Höfn
Kirkjufell	Snæfellsnes	91%	15%	none under 60%	Grundarfjörður
Þingvellir	Golden Circle	96%	43%	none under 60%	Selfoss
Eyjafjörður, north of Akureyri	North	96%	30%	none under 60%	Akureyri
Ísafjörður fjords	Westfjords	97%	88%	none under 60%	Ísafjörður
Grótta lighthouse	Reykjavík	98%	46%	none under 60%	Reykjavík
Reynisfjara and Vík	South Coast	100%	62%	none under 60%	Vík
Lake Mývatn	North-east	100%	48%	none under 60%	Mývatn

Cloud cover during the dark hours, night of 2026-10-28. Forecast model values, refreshed every 30 minutes. Clearest three hours means the lowest average cloud in any three-hour stretch, when it is under 60%.

Lagarfljót, EgilsstaðirThe driest part of Iceland in a westerly airflow; long dark valleys and almost no one else.Itineraries that stay in Egilsstaðir
Jökulsárlón glacier lagoonThe classic photograph: lights over icebergs. The east tends to be clearer than the south coast in a westerly.Itineraries that stay in Höfn
KirkjufellTwo hours from Reykjavík and the most photographed aurora foreground in the country; often clear in a southerly.Itineraries that stay in Grundarfjörður
ÞingvellirAn hour from Reykjavík with no town lights; the lake doubles the show on a still night.Itineraries that stay in Selfoss
Eyjafjörður, north of AkureyriDrive 15 minutes out of town along the fjord; the mountains block the city glow.Itineraries that stay in Akureyri
Ísafjörður fjordsRemote and dark; the deep fjords narrow the sky but keep the wind off.Itineraries that stay in Ísafjörður
Grótta lighthouseThe city’s own dark corner, 15 minutes from downtown; the north-facing view is over open sea.Itineraries that stay in Reykjavík
Reynisfjara and VíkOften under cloud when the north is clear; when it is clear, the sea stacks are the foreground everyone wants.Itineraries that stay in Vík
Lake MývatnInland, high and often clear when the coast is not; the pseudo-craters give a foreground without driving.Itineraries that stay in Mývatn

The next three nights

NOAA's three-day Kp outlook. Cloud is only forecast reliably a day or two ahead, so use this to choose which night to keep free and check back for the sky.

Strongest predicted Kp per day
Date	Kp max	What it means in Iceland
2026-10-29	2.33	Quiet: a faint arc low in the north on a very clear night
2026-10-30	4.33	Active: a good show from most of the country if clear
2026-10-31	5	Storm: overhead displays likely under any clear sky

Strongest predicted Kp per day.

Each night is scored and stored from October 2026; the history of how often the lights were worth chasing appears here after the first week.

How the verdict is made

Darkness: the hours the sun is more than 12° below the horizon at each site, computed for the date. None from mid-April to late August.
Activity: the strongest three-hour Kp in NOAA's forecast that overlaps the dark window. Iceland needs less than most places: Kp 2 often shows, Kp 3 is a good night, Kp 4 and up is a show.
Sky: average total cloud at each site over the dark window from the forecast model, with low cloud shown separately. The clearest site sets the verdict.
Verdict: good chance when Kp is 3 or more and the clearest site has 35% cloud or less; possible when Kp 2 with up to 50% cloud, or Kp 4 with up to 75%; unlikely otherwise.

Download the data (CSV) · free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 with a link back.

Questions about the northern lights tonight

Can I see the northern lights in Iceland tonight?

Only if three things line up: it is dark (late August to mid-April), the sky is clear where you are, and the sun is active enough (a Kp of 2 or more is usually enough this far north). This page checks all three every half hour and gives one verdict, with the clearest viewing site named.

What Kp do you need to see the aurora in Iceland?

Iceland sits under the auroral oval, so a Kp of 2 to 3 under a clear, dark sky is often enough for a visible arc in the north, and Kp 4 or more gives a show overhead. A high Kp under cloud shows nothing, which is why the cloud forecast matters more than the Kp number on most nights.

Where is the best place to see the northern lights tonight?

Wherever the sky is clearest, away from town lights. The table above ranks nine dark-sky sites by tonight’s cloud cover and names the clearest three-hour stretch at each. In a westerly wind the east and north-east (Egilsstaðir, Mývatn) are often clear when the south coast is not; in a northerly it reverses.

What time are the northern lights most visible?

Any time it is fully dark, with a mild peak between about 22:00 and 01:00 when activity is often highest. The dark window on this page is the sun more than 12 degrees below the horizon; before that the sky is too bright for all but the strongest displays.

Does the moon matter?

A full moon washes out faint aurora and lights the landscape, which photographers either hate or love. A strong display is visible under any moon. The moon’s phase and brightness are shown with tonight’s facts.

Where does the data come from?

Geomagnetic activity (Kp, now and three days ahead) from the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center; hourly cloud cover at each site from Open-Meteo’s forecast model; darkness and the moon computed for each site. Nothing on this page is typed in by hand, and each night is stored so the page can report how often the lights were worth chasing.

Deeper reading on iceland-trip.com

Our sister site covers every place in depth: access, parking, seasons, what to expect. Written by the same team.