Northern lights in Tromsø in March
56%
of 4-night stays in March saw the northern lights at least once, by our estimate. On any one night the chance was 26%. March is one of the weaker months in Tromsø; January (75%) was much better.
How long to stay in March
Chance of at least one good night, by length of stay, Tromsø in March, 2015–2025.
In a typical March, the longest run of nights without a single clear, dark hour was 8 nights. A stay shorter than that can fall entirely into one cloudy spell.
Week by week in March (4-night stay)
- 4 Mar – 10 Mar67%
- 11 Mar – 17 Mar52%
- 18 Mar – 24 Mar45%
- 25 Mar – 31 Mar53%
March in Tromsø, year by year
Good nights in March, each year 2015–2025. The typical March had 6 good nights; the worst, 2019, had 2 and the best, 2023, had 18. 2023–2025, around the solar maximum, averaged 16 against 5 before.
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 1 that Tromsø needs (GFZ Potsdam). These are estimates, not sightings. How it works
Other destinations in March
Tromsø ranks 19th 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 Tromsø in March
A guide with a car can drive to wherever the clouds break. With cloudy spells of 8 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.
Tromsø in March: questions
March is one of the weaker months in Tromsø; January (75%) was much better. In 2015–2025, 56% of 4-night stays in March saw the northern lights at least once, and an average March had 8 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 37%, 4 nights gave 56%, 7 nights gave 70% odds of at least one good night in March (2015–2025). Even a week gave 70%, so treat the aurora as a bonus. In a typical March, the longest run of nights without a single clear, dark hour was 8 nights. A stay shorter than that can fall entirely into one cloudy spell.
About 7.6 hours a night with the sun more than 12° below the horizon, which is dark enough for faint auroras. Of those, 1.5 hours a night were mostly clear on average, and 9 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 7.6 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.