How to Find the Northern Lights in Iceland

3 Factors to be Considered When Hunting for the Northern Lights

Author: The Traveling Professor/Tuesday, February 12, 2019/Categories: Norway/Iceland/Denmark

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This winter, The Traveling Professor led two small group tours to Iceland to see the Northern Lights.  We also visited the dramatic South Coast of Iceland as well as the enjoyable Golden Circle.  Our small groups did a Reykjavik walking tour and of course, to finish things off, we visited the relaxing Blue Lagoon

In order to for the see the Northern Lights, Mother Nature must cooperate:

Darkness:  The Northern Lights can only be seen in the dark.  That's the easy part.  The best time to see the lights is after 10:00 pm, although they can appear later or earlier.  We like to travel away from the city lights to give us the best view.

No Clouds:  Cloud cover will obscure the viewing of the lights.  We find that the colder it is, the less likely there are to be clouds in the sky.

The Aurora Must be Active:  There needs to be a certain level of aurora activity to see the lights.  How do we know what the aurora activity will be.  Look at the website https://en.vedur.is/weather/forecasts/aurora/.  It shows the cloud cover as well as the aurora activity rated from 0 to 9.  Although it is rare for aurora activity to be 8 or more, a rating of 4 pretty much insures a good light show for the night.

Join The Professor on his next small group tour to Iceland and the Northern Lights.

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