Tromsø Aurora

FjordsTroms,Norway

A Norwegian Arctic city at almost 70° north sitting directly under the auroral oval, with husky teams, whales offshore and no sun for two months.

September·Edge of season

Aug–Oct

From late August the dark returns, and with it the first faint aurora, which strengthens through the September equinox. The season is calmer and milder than midwinter, with autumn colour on the islands. The winter whales and the deep-snow sledding season are still to come.

Year-round The fjords, islands, ice-free harbour and the Fjellheisen cable car are here every day of the year. What changes with the season is the aurora, the polar night, the midnight sun, the snow and the winter whales.

Tromsø sits at almost 70 degrees north on an island in Arctic Norway, directly under the auroral oval. That is the ring around the magnetic pole where the lights are almost always happening, so the odds here are not really about the sun. They are about cloud. Guides drive out of the city glow into the dark valleys and islands around it, Kvaløya and Ringvassøya. A good one keeps moving for hours to find you the one patch of sky that stays open. Some nights the wait is on snowshoes, flat on your back on a frozen lake with nothing to crop the view. When it comes, the green is oxygen struck about a hundred kilometres up; the rarer deep reds are the same gas higher and thinner, and nitrogen lower down fringes the curtains violet. The colour is a map of altitude. The Sámi of this north took the lights for living spirits, and held that whistling or waving could make them notice you and come down. The rest of the winter is built around the same dark. You take the reins behind a husky team across a snow-filled valley with almost no sound but paws and the hiss of the runners; in midwinter that run happens in full darkness. The Fjellheisen cable car climbs to the Storsteinen ledge, where the city's lights spread across the dark fjord and the aurora can come up over the rooftops. Across the bridge the Arctic Cathedral has been the city's silhouette since 1965, a white triangle that lights from inside after dark. From November into January orcas and humpbacks crowd the fjords north of the city to feed on wintering herring, met by boats out of Skjervøy. From late November to mid-January the sun does not rise here at all. Nobody is waiting for darkness; the driving is for a gap in the cloud.

Worth knowing

Good to know

Watch the Kp index and the cloud map together — aurora needs both an active night and a clear sky, and the cloud map matters most: a strong forecast is useless under thick cloud.
Go with a northern-lights chase tour, not a fixed viewpoint — guides drive for hours toward whatever sky is clear, which matters far more than any single lookout this far north.
The lights are liveliest around magnetic midnight — the window from about 6 pm to 1 am is prime, so plan for a long, still wait rather than a quick look outside.
Late September and March trade darkness for calmer weather — the equinox months are often more active and less brutally cold than midwinter, though December brings the deepest true dark.

Things to do

1
Go aurora hunting
With a guide, drive out beyond the city's glow into the dark valleys and islands around Tromsø — Kvaløya, Ringvassøya, a snow-walled valley — and wait under an open sky. Some nights you walk out on snowshoes and lie back on a frozen lake, where no trees or buildings crop the view. Chasing clear weather is half the game, and a good guide will move for hours to find the one patch of sky that stays open.
2
Drive a husky team through the polar dark
Take the reins behind a team of huskies and run across a snow-filled Arctic valley, with almost no sound but their paws and the hiss of the runners. In midwinter the sun never rises here at all, so an evening run takes place in full darkness, and the aurora can flare green over the trail while you drive.
3
Ride the cable car up Storsteinen
Ride the Fjellheisen cable car up to the Storsteinen ledge high above Tromsø, where the city's lights spread across the dark fjord below. On a clear night the aurora can appear right over the rooftops from this high, wind-bitten balcony.
4
Visit the Arctic Cathedral
Cross the bridge to the Arctic Cathedral, whose tall triangular form and glowing glass have made it Tromsø's signature silhouette since 1965. Under fresh snow or a low winter sun the white building is almost the same colour as the ground around it, and after dark the glass front lights up from inside.
5
Follow the winter whales to Skjervøy
From November into January, orcas and humpbacks crowd the fjords north of Tromsø to feed on wintering herring, and boats run out from Skjervøy to meet them. It is a long, cold day on the water, often under the same low Arctic light that later brings the aurora.

Watch

Nearby

61 km