Northern lights forecast tonight in Sweden

A chairlift climbs for twenty minutes to a station at 900 metres on Nuolja, above much of the low cloud that spoils nights below. A terrace and a small viewing tower face out over the mountains, with warm overalls handed out at the base.

The park entrance sits on the south shore of Torneträsk, and the lake leaves the northern horizon flat and unlit. Abisko's dry microclimate, the so-called blue hole, often holds a clear patch when the rest of the range is covered.

A small mountain station about nine kilometres up the lake from Abisko, with its own halt on the Malmbanan railway and very little permanent lighting. Torneträsk lies directly north, so the horizon in that direction stays low and dark.

Kiruna's old mine mountain reaches 726 metres and has a road and car park part way up. Kiruna Lapland's own advice is to walk on past that car park, at which point the town's lights drop below you and the northern horizon opens out.

A campsite and hotel on the north-west edge of town, with street lamps screened downward so the sky above stays dark. Close enough to walk from the centre for a first look on a clear night.

The village sits on the Torne River thirteen kilometres east of Kiruna, far enough out that the town's glow no longer fills the northern sky. The frozen river gives a wide, flat foreground, and the Icehotel stands on its bank.

In winter the town plows a skating track out onto the frozen bay from Södra hamn, with a snow-covered walking lane beside it. There are no streetlights out there, so a few hundred metres from shore the sky is properly dark.

A park and beach at the western tip of the city peninsula, ten minutes from the centre on foot, with open water or ice to the west and north. Town lights sit behind you rather than in front.

A coastal hamlet fourteen kilometres north-east of Luleå where the lodge runs winter trips out onto the frozen Bothnian Bay. Away from the city, the sea ice gives an unbroken low horizon in every direction.

A bare rock outcrop in Södermalm, at 53 metres the highest natural point in central Stockholm, with an open view north-west over Riddarfjärden. The city glow is directly beneath you, so only a strong storm will show anything from here.

Old-growth forest twenty kilometres south-east of the city, with a car park and visitor centre at Tyresta by and no lighting inside the park. Stockholm's glow still sits on the northern horizon, so aurora here reads as a band above the trees.

A shallow lake basin and open wetland in Vallentuna, twenty-five kilometres north of the city, with a car park at Örsta and low ground in every direction. The worst of the light dome is behind you here rather than ahead.