23/06/2024
Planning on hunting aurora ? Go for it !
a few tips :
But wait, did you hear people tell you : " There is no guarantee , it's just a question of luck !" .
.. well, I DO guarantee you will see them, just like I always do, if you follow this strategy .
I've hunted aurora on over 20 trips in Iceland mostly but also twice in Sweden and once in the U.S. ( North Dakota in June ), never failed, always saw them on most nights if not every night...
The few things to know as basics : In the equinox months of september-october and march-april they happen almost every night. But to actually see them you need negative /southward Bz ( read this to understand why Bz is THE most important ingredient for auroral activity https://www.spaceweatherlive.com/en/help/the-interplanetary-magnetic-field-imf.html ) ... and so in equinox season there is much more chance for aurora as per the graphic below ... more : https://earthsky.org/sun/aurora-season-auroras-equinox-connection/
NOW : autumn is better than spring because spring equinox up north you will find lots of snow, ice, many closed roads, even winter storms that can occasionnally close down your destination airport and if we learned one thing from recent events, seasonal health issues like flu and covid that might mess up your travel plans ( I still went aurorahunting in Iceland in september 2020 despite quarantine, and in Sweden october 2020 and 2021 on roadtrips from Switzerland ).
so september-october is , IMHO , the best time... Also better choose a moonless week around New Moon rather than Full Moon because aurora is not always very bright and the darker the sky , the better ( just like with any other faint object, deep sky, faint stars, milky way, meteor showers etc. )
so now comes THE most important thing : the Weather ! Clouds ! What to do about cloudy skies ?
you either think it's just a question of luck and you can't do anything about the clouds, or... how about focusing on meteorology ? Learn how to dodge clouds, instead of blaming them ? For Iceland, start here : https://en.vedur.is/climatology/iceland/nr/1268
In Iceland, and Sweden/Norway, too, there are mountains, and when there are mountains there is very often something called the rain shadow effect . https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rain_shadow
so as a result when you are in Iceland typically under cloudy skies in the south ( where it rains much more than in the north ) , you would often have clear skies in the north.... and vice-versa... east-west, south-north, windward - leeward ... You can verify the rain situation here https://en.vedur.is/weather/forecasts/elements/ =precip or on windy.com .. and the short-range hourly cloud forecast here : https://en.vedur.is/weather/forecasts/cloudcover/
so , most visitors to Iceland stay in Reykjavik and hope for locally clear skies, but often get clouded out ( I nickname the capital Rainkjavik 😉 , I almost never stay there ). And thus most people will tell you there's no guarantee, it's only a question of luck...
but knowing what you now know, with the rainshadow and equinox seasons and dark sky new moon and cloud forecast and Bz , why do you choose to stay in Rainkjavik ? Strategy : Get a car and focus on the weather , drive every day to where next nightskies will be clear... The weather forecast on vedur.is is excellent for the next 12 hours ...
So, I do book my flight and rental car ( always 4X4 SUV as there might be early snow or mud and gravel roads and mountain roads ) but I arrive in Iceland without booked room.. then I look up the weather for tonight and decide to drive there.. sightseeing as a sidekick along the road okay , but priority is clear-nightsky hunting... I use booking.com or google maps to find last minute rooms , hotels, cottages, guesthouses, at the target of the tonight, and you will arrive where the nightsky is clear and you WILL see aurora very often as soon as Bz cooperates , which you can follow live here https://www.spaceweatherlive.com/en/auroral-activity.html ... Yes, on some occasions you will have clear nightskies all night but still no aurora, that's how Bz can be... but most of times in equinox season Bz cooperates almost every night.
What time of the night ? Often aurora peaks around midnight , roughly from 10pm to 2am , but it CAN happen anytime, from dusk to dawn, so better dine before sunset, and don't spend too much daytime sightseeing all day or you may be too tired to stay up much of the night.. I've seen them early with dark blue twilight evening skies when just a few bright stars were visible, and also in pre-dawn hours... you don't want to miss this kind of unpredicted surprise just because you're dining at 9PM ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joDoCo9s35c ... and this FAE was around 5AM :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65ZsQU4SP9Y
If the cloud forecast shows overcast skies in a wide area all evening and much of the night, here's plan B : look up cloud forecast for the 2nd part of the night and see if there is anywhere with a potential for local clearing, then drive there, go sleep and set your alarm clock for the clearing time, example , I just landed in Iceland but the weather forecast was very cloudy all night , but I targeted a local clearing for 2-3 AM , went to sleep, woke up and boom : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wv72hujDvCo or another trip, had dinner , drove to where it would clear long after midnight, went to sleep under clouds, woke up early morning under clear skies : https://youtu.be/A_xnjEvjuwQ?t=431 ... on the other hand, if you arrive at Keflavik airport and the cloud forecast looks good for this area, no need to go elsewhere, find a room near the airport, go rest, wait for nightfall, follow Bz and then go out to see what happens : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HrdEgD6cWk
when I drove to Sweden, same story , using windy.com for short range cloud forecast , driving to leeward side of the mountains between Sweden and Norway . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLE3yVksqnA That was in 2020. When I returned in 2021 I decided to only do Sweden , since it got more complicated to enter Norway with more covid rules, so obviously I had more cloudy nights as I was limited to only one side of the mountains, but still found me some good stuff https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7HTdUVxmlE ...
sometimes the drive is short, sometimes longer... this day from cloudy south Iceland to clear-sky in north Iceland , drove all day 625km https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzUDR_OdKI8 , totally worth it. ... or here, driving 652 km from east to west to make sure we get clear skies that night https://youtu.be/JFOZQaUJXBQ?t=752s
but occasionnally, if and when you're lucky with the weather , you can stay 2 or 3 nights at the same location. 😉
for driving and touring around Iceland, do take the time to get very familiar with sites and tabs and links of en.vedur.is , don't underestimate the weather alerts, always park your car facing the wind ... road.is , umferdin.is , safetravel.is , mountain roadshttps://wp-beta.vegagerdin.is/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/2024-ju-CC-81ni-CC-81-opnun-fjallvega-enska.pdf , the only paying tunnel is at tunnel.is , and a map showing paved roads in black https://vegasja.vegagerdin.is/eng/ ( very detailed , zoom in ) .
I DO guarantee you will see them . Here's multiple proof : https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUxXgLQKlzhkOUdm5aLWLJ5OLtyOnlmZx
Happy clear-sky hunting ! Fasten your seat belt and hang on, it's gonna get windy .
P.S. are you a skater or surfskater ? bring your board. Let's skate the aurora ! www.auroraskaters.com
😉
