Aurora forecast tonight in Edmonton
Live northern lights outlook for Edmonton, Canada — from NOAA's Ovation model and planetary Kp forecast, updated every 15 minutes.
Tonight's verdict
Worth watching tonight
8%
local probability now
2.0
max Kp next 24h
Kp 1+
what Edmonton needs
There's a real chance if skies are dark and clear. Auroras are often bright to a camera before they're visible to the eye.
Make the quiet useful: get a storm alert first · Film the aurora on iPhone · Aurora tonight
Updated 2026-09-28 07:32 UTC · NOAA SWPC Ovation Prime · Kp now 1.7
Kp forecast — next 24 hours
1.7
06:00
1.7
09:00
1.7
12:00
0.7
15:00
0.7
18:00
1.7
21:00
1.7
00:00
2.0
03:00
Times UTC · bright green = at/above the Kp 1 Edmonton needs
Aurora possible over Edmonton tonight — be ready to film it.
When you're finally standing in the cold under the night you've waited years for, there are no retakes — the sky does its show once and moves on. So pack the jacket, pack the thermos, and pack the one thing that makes the night eternal: the only iOS astrophotography app built for auroras. Long after the trip, you'll still have the display itself, moving, in 4K.
- ✦ Set it down and it arms itself
- ✦ 4K timelapse + a still from the session
- ✦ Aurora intelligence tunes every capture
- ✦ Tracks the aurora live — no extra app
- ✦ Apple Watch companion
- ✦ Pay once, own it forever
What it takes to see the aurora from Edmonton
Edmonton sits at 53.5°N geographic, but what decides an aurora is geomagnetic latitude — 60.0°N here. That puts the northern lights overhead regularly: even quiet conditions around Kp 1–2 can bring them out, so on a clear night you mostly need darkness and patience.
Kp 1 a camera catches itKp 1 visible to the eyeKp 3 overhead
Watching from Edmonton: get clear of streetlights with an open northern horizon, give your eyes fifteen minutes to adapt, and concentrate on the hours around local midnight, when activity statistically peaks. The season runs from late August to mid-April, and activity climbs measurably around the equinoxes.
For comparison, Edmonton needs about Kp 1; Calgary, 281 km away, needs about Kp 3. On a marginal night that difference decides who sees anything.
One rule every chaser learns the hard way: the camera sees it first. An arc that reads as grey haze to your eyes is already green in a one-second exposure, so point a camera at the northern sky before deciding there is nothing there — one tap in Aurora Lens runs that check and films whatever answers.
Read next: Aurora with any phone · Film the aurora on iPhone · Aurora tonight
Tonight's sky over Edmonton
Astronomical darkness
8.2 hours
21:19 – 05:32 local time GMT-6
Local clock times for Edmonton, between sunset-dark and first light: the sun more than 18° below the horizon, when faint aurora shows best.
Clouds tonight
Partly cloudy69%
Mean cloud cover across tonight's dark hours. Clouds beat cameras — a clear gap is worth chasing.
Moon
97% lit
A bright moon washes out faint aurora. Strong displays cut through it without trouble.
Best spots to see the northern lights in Edmonton
Places locals and guides actually name, with what each one gives you.
Elk Island National Park
42 km east · car
Part of the Beaver Hills Dark Sky Preserve since 2006 and the nearest properly dark ground to Edmonton, 42 km east of the centre. Aurora this far south needs a decent storm, and the city dome still sits on the western horizon.
Miquelon Lake Provincial Park
51 km south-east · car
Miquelon Lake sits inside the same Beaver Hills preserve, 51 km southeast of the centre by Highway 21 and Highway 623. Lighting rules there mean nothing on the ground competes with a faint green arc, which is what you get at this latitude.
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Aurora in Edmonton: common questions
- What Kp does Edmonton need to see the northern lights?
- Three different numbers, depending what you mean. Edmonton sits at 60.0 geomagnetic latitude, so a long exposure picks the aurora up low on the northern horizon from about Kp 1, you can see it yourself from around Kp 1, and it stands overhead near Kp 3. Aurora glows 100–400 km up, which is why it clears the horizon from hundreds of kilometres away.
- Is it dark enough in Edmonton tonight?
- Edmonton gets about 8.2 hours of full astronomical darkness tonight, and the moon is 97% lit. Both matter: a bright moon or a sky that never fully darkens will hide a faint display.
- When is the best time of year for aurora in Edmonton?
- The season runs from late August to mid-April. Activity peaks statistically around the equinoxes, in late September and again in March, and the hours around local midnight are the most productive on any given night.
- Can an iPhone photograph the aurora in Edmonton?
- Yes, and it will usually show more than your eyes do. A long exposure gathers colour that human night vision cannot. Filming it moving needs an app built for the job; Aurora Lens does that and saves a 4K timelapse plus a still frame.
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