Northern lights advice

[Hopeandlove]

Live in SW England. Would like to take the kids to see the northern lights, have two dogs so easier if we can take them Uk to a dog friendly eco cabin or something - any advice?

want to go for 3-4 days over Christmas ideally

Honestly, I think in 3-4 days in the UK you would have to be extremely lucky to see the northern lights. You do see the lights in Scotland - the further north the more likely, and sometimes in England/Wales too if the activity is very high. But you’d need good levels of activity to see them plus clear skies - a combination that doesn’t happen often.

If you can get someone to look after the dogs then going to Iceland, or Northern Norway, Northern Sweden or Northern Finland would give you a better chance. But you still have to be lucky - you need activity plus good weather.

Have a look at the Aurora forecasts - like this one to get a sense of where you might see activity. (Mostly Northern Scandinavia and Iceland). You can see forecasts of the intensity of the activity too like this one for Iceland - if the activity is low you wouldn’t see much.

My advice - go somewhere that you as a family would enjoy for other reasons (somewhere that has plenty of fun stuff to do in the day) and keep an eye on the forecasts so you can go out aurora hunting at night if it looks good. But don’t plan a holiday just around seeing the lights.

PS if you do go abroad there are plenty of resorts in places like Iceland/Scandinavia that are geared towards Northern Lights viewing - away from the cities to minimise light pollution, some of them have eg the domes so you can stay indoors and watch the lights, alarms going off when the lights appear and so on.

I think you will struggle hugely to see the lights in UK.

We researched this (pre kids) and it seems Canada is the best place to see them (as in you have a higher chance of seeing them and when you do see them you get the best view) but Canada wasn’t an option for us.

Iceland also seemed to be a good bet so we booked 4 nights there in December a few years back. Cheap flights (about £60 return for peak season!) but everything else was so so expensive. It was our main holiday that year! The tours were expensive, accommodation, food. Wow it was bonkers. We had a northern lights tour booked and also some other trips. Anyway, we got there and it rained the night we had planned to see them, so the tour was cancelled…. And we didn’t see them..

a long way of me saying that there is never any guarantee, so be prepared. Norway and Finland also expensive! I will do all I can to see them in my lifetime though..

I wouldn't plan a holiday in the uk around them to be honest as if you did see them you would be incredibly lucky.
My friend is from Norway and has only seen them about 4 times in her life!

We visited Tromso in Norway and saw them on a tour, would recommend. However we were up and out from 11pm-4am waiting and watching so not sure how child-friendly that would be.

Be prepared that you may never see them, UK or abroad! We’ve been to Lapland 3 times and never yet been lucky enough to see them 🫤

@Sweetandsour1 yes definitely a good point! I’ve seen them a couple of times and last time was standing outside in -20 for about four hours. I think the resorts might be better for kids as you can choose to only go outside when there’s activity and if you’ve got a dome can stay inside and watch them! Obviously the resorts are pricey though.

This is a case of that irritating phrase - manage your expectations. You would be extremely, extremely lucky to see them anywhere in the UK. It depends on the solar weather activity to start with. The graphs here
www.nasa.gov/msfcsolar
show that solar activity is about to increase in the next couple of years, and this year is an unlikely one. Then, British astronomy is prone to our weather interfering as well. On several occasions in the past I've heard the possibility mentioned on the weather forecast, when there was unbroken cloud. On the one occasion I have seen them, they were faint orangy columns mingling with sodium street lights across the river in Essex. Still not convinced by them.
OTOH, I was phoned once from an astronomy society in Kenley, Surrey, which was seeing them, but though I was at the same latitude in Gloucestershire, by the time I got to a clear horizon, they were gone.
Solar weather, like ours, is variable and not very predictable. There can be big events, coronal mass ejections, which are completely unpredictable. I once came out in a rash by sunbathing during one which no-one knew about while it hit us, and which subsequently got NASA very worried about the effects on astronauts. They would cause dranatic displays, but you'd need to organise a trip in just a few minutes.
After all the negative stuff, however, I have seen them, properly, twice. Once on a cruise to see a solar eclipse, plus aurora, and once on a specialist astronomy cruise beyond the North Cape. On the first we had two land based trips north of the Arctic circle, one of which was in a useless place with street lights, the other was better, and we had a professional photographer for advice.
The second was on a Hurtigruten astronomy cruise, advertised as offering a free trip if the aurora doesn't show. We had a splendid show, and the astronomer said it was the best he had seen, over the whole sky. (That didn't stop a woman complaining in the breakfast queues that it wasn't good enough. She thought it would be like the speeded up photoshopped stuff on TV. It isn't.) It had been a particularly good bit of solar weather - the photographer from the eclipse trip was on a "see the aurora" flight that night, and a friend of ours was in Alaska, and both thought it particularly impressive.
There is no way to predict nights like that.
And in Iceland, I saw nothing.
This page may be helpful.
aurorawatch.lancs.ac.uk/
You need, I am afraid, to save up and then to get someone to look after the dogs.

Another vote for manage your expectations. I've been lucky to see the lights many times but always in the Nordic countries, have never tried in the UK.
If staying in the UK, basically you need to go as far north as you can, and be somewhere reasonably dark - away from city/town lights. Plan a trip with the hope of seeing the lights but the aim of just enjoying a trip away. If the skies are clear you'll at least get some amazing star gazing done.

We went to Iceland in February and never got to see them so nothing can be guaranteed. Occasionally they can be seen n the UK but you have to be really lucky and can't plan it. You are more likely to see them in Scandinavia, Iceland or Lapland but even then don't bank on it.

There are aurora spotting flights from UK airports where they fly you around Iceland and further North, these are a good way to maximise the chance of actually seeing the Northern Lights. I have seen them many times when I lived in North East Scotland and it is an amazing sight! www.travelfox.co.uk/special-interest/northern-lights-flight-experience/

My dsis lives in the Highlands and sees the Northern Lights fairly regularly especially during the longer nights. There have also been a lot more sightings of them in Northern Ireland in recent years. But regardless, you need to manage expectations as they're viewing is weather dependent.

Hi OP, like PPs I think you'd be unlikely to see them in the UK.

Xmas also isn't the best time - you want the equinoxes (Sept/March) as statistically there is more solar flare activity at those times which is what creates the aurora.

We went to Kakslauttanen resort in Lapland (fly to Helsinki then another short flight north) in March 20 years ago and saw them every night we were there - but as pthers have pointed out, we were standing in 1.5 metres of snow at -20 degrees for hours in the middle of the night so not at all child-friendly!

Best of luck though, they are magical and I feel very lucky to have seen them.

Agree with PP, very unlikely you would see them in UK.

Iceland - Went for 5 days and didn't see them due to cloud coverage.
Norway - We cruised along the northern-most point (starting in Kirkenes) and saw them 4 nights out of 6!

Look at cruises, a friend of mine did one where if the lights weren't sighted at all during the trip you got a free return.

This is a case of that irritating phrase - manage your expectations. You would be extremely, extremely lucky to see them anywhere in the UK.

Generally agree, with the first sentence, not so much with the second

Regular amateur observers, especially those in Scotland, who report/"spot" these things and therefore know what to look for do regularly report seeming them (as in multiple times a year or month) in winter, but they are not usually seeing the multi coloured animated displays you see in the videos...FWIW I saw the Aurora from SW UK just once, it was very much a one in twenty plus year event and I was at a dark sky site.

As others have said there's a lot of luck involved, the weather and Sun need to cooperate and I wouldn't be banking on seeing anything in a given four period in the UK, even from Northern Scotland. I'd be thinking Norway or Iceland, if I was really going to push the boat out it reckoned places on the US/Canadian Border have the best combination of frequency of Aurora and clear skies, but that might be a bit of a stretch...

Been to Scotland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and still not seen them!

I used to feel like you and was desperate to see them but now, instead i embrace some wonderful sunset & sunrises. The colours you get can be truly wonderful.

Thanks all. Maybe a cruise in a few years then. It’s a bucket list thing!