Aurora forecast tonight in New York City
Live northern lights outlook for New York City, United States — from NOAA's Ovation model and planetary Kp forecast, updated every 15 minutes.
Tonight's verdict
Quiet for now
0%
local probability now
3.7
max Kp next 24h
Kp 7+
what New York City needs
Activity looks low right now, but substorms flare with little warning. Check back after dark or watch the Kp trend.
Make the quiet useful: get a storm alert first · Film the aurora on iPhone · Aurora tonight
Updated 2026-09-25 05:08 UTC · NOAA SWPC Ovation Prime · Kp now 3.7
Kp forecast — next 24 hours
3.0
00:00
3.7
03:00
2.7
06:00
2.0
09:00
1.7
12:00
2.3
15:00
2.3
18:00
2.7
21:00
Times UTC · bright green = at/above the Kp 7 New York City needs
Be ready before the next storm hits.
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 New York City
New York City sits at 40.7°N geographic, but what decides an aurora is geomagnetic latitude — 50.0°N here. That makes the northern lights a big-storm event here, roughly Kp 7 and above. By NOAA's published storm frequencies, Kp 7 is reached on roughly 11.8 nights a year averaged across the 11-year solar cycle — and the years just after solar maximum, where we are now, have historically delivered the cycle's strongest storms.
Kp 5 a camera catches itKp 7 visible to the eyeKp 9 overhead
Watching from New York City: 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, New York City needs about Kp 7; Boston, 307 km away, needs about Kp 6. 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 New York City
Astronomical darkness
8.9 hours
20:22 – 05:14 local time GMT-4
Local clock times for New York City, between sunset-dark and first light: the sun more than 18° below the horizon, when faint aurora shows best.
Clouds tonight
Overcast98%
Mean cloud cover across tonight's dark hours. Clouds beat cameras — a clear gap is worth chasing.
Moon
98% lit
A bright moon washes out faint aurora. Strong displays cut through it without trouble.
🔔 Get free aurora alerts
Sign up and we'll send you one alert when a storm is coming and auroras are likely. Nothing else, ever.
Tuned for New York City
We store only what's needed to send the alert. One-tap unsubscribe in every message.
Aurora in New York City: common questions
- What Kp does New York City need to see the northern lights?
- Three different numbers, depending what you mean. New York City sits at 50.0 geomagnetic latitude, so a long exposure picks the aurora up low on the northern horizon from about Kp 5, you can see it yourself from around Kp 7, and it stands overhead near Kp 9. Aurora glows 100–400 km up, which is why it clears the horizon from hundreds of kilometres away.
- Is it dark enough in New York City tonight?
- New York City gets about 8.9 hours of full astronomical darkness tonight, and the moon is 98% 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 New York City?
- 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 New York City?
- 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.
Aurora forecasts near New York City
Boston
Aurora forecast for BostonUnited States
Syracuse
Aurora forecast for SyracuseUnited States
Rochester
Aurora forecast for RochesterUnited States
Burlington
Aurora forecast for BurlingtonUnited States
Portland, Maine
Aurora forecast for Portland, MaineUnited States
Buffalo
Aurora forecast for BuffaloUnited States
More United States aurora forecasts Fairbanks · Anchorage · Juneau · Nome · Utqiaġvik (Barrow) · Coldfoot · Talkeetna · Denali Park