Will I See / United States / Glacier National Park

Will I see the northern lights in Glacier National Park tonight?

Tonight in Glacier National Park

Probably not

Skies look partly clear, but auroras are forecast to be quiet: Kp 1.3, and Glacier National Park needs about Kp 6.

Updated 3 min agoUpdates every 10 min
0%chance at the best hour tonight
55.2°magnetic latitude
Kp 6needed here
12 hdark hours tonight
25% litmoon

Hour by hour tonight

chance %cloud %Kp forecast● moon up
HourChanceCloudKpMoon

Loading tonight's hours…

Times are local (America/Denver). Only hours with the sun below −6° are shown. Kp forecast: NOAA SWPC. Clouds: MET Norway.

Get an email when tonight looks good in Glacier National Park

The northern lights reach Glacier National Park only in big storms. We'll tell you when one lines up with a clear, dark night. At most one email a night, one click to stop.

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Planning a trip to Glacier National Park?

Auroras in Glacier National Park need a geomagnetic storm (about Kp 6). In 2015–2025 that lined up with a clear, dark sky on about 2 nights a year, so treat a sighting here as a bonus, not a plan.

Trip odds here round to zero in almost every week, so we don't chart them. Your best bet is to watch the Kp index: when a storm reaches about Kp 6 and the sky above is clear, this page's live forecast will say so.

Every night you could have seen them, 2015–2025

22 nights in 11 years were clear and dark in Glacier National Park while auroras reached far enough, by our estimate from NASA cloud data and the Kp record. The strongest: 31 May 2025 (Kp 7.7).

20155 nights
  • 21 Mar Kp 6.3
  • 22 Jun Kp 6.3
  • 26 Aug Kp 6.3
  • 10 Sep Kp 7
  • 19 Sep Kp 7
20161 night
  • 7 May Kp 6.3
20172 nights
  • 27 May Kp 7
  • 27 Sep Kp 6.7
2018none
20191 night
  • 13 May Kp 6.3
2020none
20212 nights
  • 11 Oct Kp 6.3
  • 3 Nov Kp 7.7
20221 night
  • 3 Sep Kp 6.3
20234 nights
  • 26 Feb Kp 6.7
  • 22 Mar Kp 6.7
  • 18 Sep Kp 6.3
  • 30 Nov Kp 6.7
20244 nights
  • 11 Aug Kp 7
  • 16 Sep Kp 6.3
  • 7 Oct Kp 7
  • 10 Oct Kp 7.7
20252 nights
  • 31 May Kp 7.7
  • 1 Oct Kp 6.7

A "night you could have seen them" = at least one hour that was dark, mostly clear and with Kp at or above the Kp 6 that Glacier National Park needs. Look north, low on the horizon, away from town lights: the northern lights here are usually a glow that a phone camera picks up better than your eyes.

Better odds nearby

Places within 700 km of Glacier National Park with more good nights a year.

Edmonton

25/yr
good nights a year (Glacier National Park: 2)540 km away · Kp 4 needed

Saskatoon

19/yr
good nights a year (Glacier National Park: 2)630 km away · Kp 4.1 needed

Jasper

10/yr
good nights a year (Glacier National Park: 2)560 km away · Kp 4.6 needed

Calgary

7/yr
good nights a year (Glacier National Park: 2)260 km away · Kp 5.1 needed

Glacier National Park northern lights: questions

Rarely. Glacier National Park sits at 55.2° magnetic latitude, so auroras need about Kp 6, which means a geomagnetic storm. Our record (2015–2025) shows about 2 nights a year with a clear, dark sky and auroras strong enough to see.

There is no reliable season: auroras this far south come with strong geomagnetic storms, which can happen in any dark month. Watch the live forecast and the Kp index instead of planning a trip around them.

About Kp 6. We worked that out from Glacier National Park's magnetic latitude (55.2°) with a rule calibrated against the Finnish Meteorological Institute's sighting statistics. Look north, low on the horizon, away from town lights.

Every 10 minutes we take NOAA's Kp forecast and MET Norway's hourly cloud forecast for Glacier National Park, add the sun and moon, and score each hour of tonight. The verdict is the best hour. How it works explains the calibration.