Sweden · Aurora borealis
Is the aurora visible in Gothenburg tonight?
Right now
Not tonight.
Kp is 0.0. Gothenburg needs Kp 6+ for the oval overhead — right now it’s not reaching Gothenburg.
Tonight's peak is forecast around Kp 4.0 (Active). The forecast still depends on darkness, cloud and the moon at your exact spot.
Reliable about 30 minutes ahead — cloud decides the rest.
Gothenburg needs an active night or a minor geomagnetic storm — it needs roughly Kp 6+ for the northern lights to come into view. Here's tonight's live space weather and how to plan around it.
How to see the aurora from Gothenburg
Face north and find a clear, low horizon in that direction. Everything else — dark skies, adapted eyes, the camera trick — is the same anywhere on Earth, so it lives in the how to photograph the aurora guide.
When can you see the northern lights in Gothenburg?
Aurora season in Gothenburg runs roughly September – March. Here the months that pay off are September, May, and March — the table below shows why. See the full best time to see the aurora guide for the season in detail.
Gothenburg by the numbers
Between Sep 1, 2025 and Aug 31, 2026, Gothenburg had 365 nights dark enough for the aurora, and the planetary Kp reached the Kp 6+ this place needs on 26 of them. Averaged over 2015–2024 and this location's cloud cover, that works out to about 5 aurora-possible nights a year, most of them in September, May, and March.
| Month | Dark hours per night | Dark nights | Average cloud cover | Aurora-possible nights |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 15 h | 31 | 75% | <1 |
| February | 13 h | 28 | 73% | 0 |
| March | 10.8 h | 31 | 67% | 1 |
| April | 8.3 h | 30 | 55% | 1 |
| May | 5.3 h | 31 | 56% | 1 |
| June | 3.3 h | 30 | 56% | <1 |
| July | 4.3 h | 31 | 59% | <1 |
| August | 7 h | 31 | 61% | 1 |
| September | 9.8 h | 30 | 64% | 1 |
| October | 12.3 h | 31 | 72% | <1 |
| November | 14.3 h | 30 | 80% | <1 |
| December | 15.5 h | 31 | 81% | <1 |
Sources: the sun's geometry (dark = at least 6° below the horizon), GFZ Potsdam's Kp index 2015–2024 (CC BY 4.0), ERA5 cloud cover via Open-Meteo (the table shows the monthly mean; the estimate counts days that were not overcast). An estimate for comparing places and months, not a forecast — how we estimate this.
Closer to the oval
Within 400 km, these places need a lower Kp than Gothenburg:
Where to watch near Gothenburg
Get out of the city lights and find a clear view to the north. These are places near Gothenburg that locals and aurora chasers use. Distances and drive times are from the city centre.
Ånäsfältet
An open field in the eastern part of the city. Residents saw the aurora here during the September 2024 display after first trying nearby Redbergsparken.
It is inside the city, so only a strong display will be visible, and colours show more clearly on a phone camera than to the eye.
MapSillvik bathing place, Torslanda (Hisingen)
A coastal bathing spot on the far western side of Hisingen, away from the city centre. The aurora was photographed here during the May 2024 storm.
The main city glow lies to the east and south-east. The open sea view faces west.
Map
Local tips
- A Gothenburg astronomer advises getting away from streetlights and onto higher ground. A strong aurora is hard to miss once it is up.
- The Swedish National Space Agency notes that southern Sweden statistically gets only about three aurora nights a year, and points to spaceweather.se for live data.
- Local astronomers name Liseberg, Scandinavium, Götaplatsen and Gothia Towers among the city's biggest sources of sky glow, so avoid a view that looks over the central and eastern districts.
The last big one
: During the night of 10 to 11 May 2024, the aurora was seen over Torslanda and central Gothenburg, and one watcher said it was the clearest she had ever seen it.
Where it’s reliable
