Russia · Aurora borealis
Is the aurora visible in Magadan tonight?
Right now
Maybe — stay ready.
Kp is 2.0. Magadan needs Kp 6+ for the oval overhead — right now it’s low on the northern horizon.
Tonight's peak is forecast around Kp 4.7 (Active). The forecast still depends on darkness, cloud and the moon at your exact spot.
Reliable about 30 minutes ahead — cloud decides the rest.
Magadan 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 Magadan
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 Magadan?
Aurora season in Magadan runs roughly September – March. Here the months that pay off are September, March, and October — the table below shows why. See the full best time to see the aurora guide for the season in detail.
Magadan by the numbers
Between Sep 1, 2025 and Aug 31, 2026, Magadan 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 4 aurora-possible nights a year, most of them in September, March, and October.
| Month | Dark hours per night | Dark nights | Average cloud cover | Aurora-possible nights |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 15.3 h | 31 | 61% | <1 |
| February | 13.3 h | 28 | 60% | <1 |
| March | 10.8 h | 31 | 64% | 1 |
| April | 7.8 h | 30 | 61% | <1 |
| May | 4.8 h | 31 | 73% | 1 |
| June | 1.8 h | 30 | 75% | <1 |
| July | 3.5 h | 31 | 74% | 0 |
| August | 6.5 h | 31 | 71% | <1 |
| September | 9.5 h | 30 | 66% | 1 |
| October | 12.3 h | 31 | 61% | <1 |
| November | 14.8 h | 30 | 66% | <1 |
| December | 16 h | 31 | 67% | <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.
Where it’s reliable
