Voyageurs National Park is a great place to view the Northern Lights, especially during the winter due to the longer nights! If you want to increase your chances of seeing the Northern Lights this winter, keep these considerations in mind:
Location
You want to go anywhere with VERY dark skies! Voyageurs National Park and up along the North Shore will be able to offer these dark conditions. For other locations, consider looking at a Dark Site Finder. This map is color coded based on levels of darkness - you want to seek locations shaded in gray or black.
Dark Site Finder
Forecasts
There are two types of forecasts you want to consider to increase your chances of seeing the Northern Lights
1. Weather Forecast: Sometimes the Northern Lights may be dancing up in the night sky, but if there are clouds obscuring your view you would never know it! Avoid weeks that are scheduled to have heavy cloud coverage throughout the night.
2. Northern Lights forecast: This is essentially like a weather forecast but for the Northern Lights! There are many apps that will provide you with this information such as My Aurora Forecast & Alerts, Aurora Alerts and Amazing Aurora. These apps are great because you can set them up so that they will give you alerts when the Northern Lights are up in the sky!
If you prefer to use a website, I use this one: https://www.gi.alaska.edu/monitors/aurora-forecast
This website projects the Northern Lights forecast for the month. Green means low chance, yellow means medium, and red means high chance.
Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska Fairbanks
These predictions are updated throughout the month as the conditions that create the Northern Lights change suddenly, so make sure to check the forecast frequently!
We see that preparation with location and checking the forecasts is crucial, but the last thing I will add is patience is key. The Northern Lights can be unpredictable and sometimes short lived. I have gone out during nights with high level predictions where the Northern Lights did not come out at all, or they did come out but were only active for a few minutes before fizzling out. It is also possible to go out during medium level nights and see the Northern Lights dancing across the sky! So make sure to bring plenty of warm layers of clothing and a hot drink with you as you give your shot of seeing this spectacular light show.
Shawn Thompson
