Northern lights in Alta in March
83%
of 4-night stays in March saw the northern lights at least once, by our estimate. On any one night the chance was 46%. March is about as good as any month in Alta; the best was January (88%).
How long to stay in March
Chance of at least one good night, by length of stay, Alta in March, 2015–2025. 3 nights got you to about 3 in 4.
In a typical March, the longest run of nights without a single clear, dark hour was 5 nights. A stay shorter than that can fall entirely into one cloudy spell.
Week by week in March (4-night stay)
- 4 Mar – 10 Mar90%
- 11 Mar – 17 Mar85%
- 18 Mar – 24 Mar84%
- 25 Mar – 31 Mar68%
March in Alta, year by year
Good nights in March, each year 2015–2025. The typical March had 15 good nights; the worst, 2018, had 10 and the best, 2023, had 20.
A good night = at least one hour that was dark (sun below −12°), mostly clear (NASA POWER cloud data, calibrated on FMI weather stations) and had a Kp index at or above the Kp 0.9 that Alta needs (GFZ Potsdam). These are estimates, not sightings. How it works
Other destinations in March
Alta ranks 8th of 21 popular aurora destinations for March (4-night stays, 2015–2025).
Yellowknife
99%Churchill
98%Saariselkä
84%Kiruna
84%Jukkasjärvi
84%Abisko
83%Aurora tours in Alta in March
A guide with a car can drive to wherever the clouds break. With cloudy spells of 5 nights in a typical March, that matters here. Booking for your first night leaves the rest of the stay to try again if it's cloudy.
Alta in March: questions
March is about as good as any month in Alta; the best was January (88%). In 2015–2025, 83% of 4-night stays in March saw the northern lights at least once, and an average March had 14 good nights (clear, dark and with auroras strong enough) out of 31. These are estimates from NASA cloud records and the Kp index, not sightings.
2 nights gave 64%, 4 nights gave 83%, 7 nights gave 93% odds of at least one good night in March (2015–2025). For about 3-in-4 odds, plan 3 nights or more. In a typical March, the longest run of nights without a single clear, dark hour was 5 nights. A stay shorter than that can fall entirely into one cloudy spell.
About 7.5 hours a night with the sun more than 12° below the horizon, which is dark enough for faint auroras. Of those, 2.6 hours a night were mostly clear on average, and 17 nights in an average March had at least one clear, dark hour.
Auroras can appear any time it's dark, but activity usually peaks around midnight, roughly 22:00 to 02:00. With about 7.5 hours of darkness a night in March, start looking as soon as it's dark and stay out past midnight if you can. The live forecast shows tonight's best hour.