Northern Lights Forecast for Regina

Not far. Regina sits on a flat, treeless plain, so once the streetlights are behind you the northern horizon is open. Regina storm chaser Greg Johnson told CBC that a five-minute drive out of the city is enough for him to photograph the aurora. In big storms it has been photographed in and around the city.

Because the lake gives a long, open view north. The town is under an hour's drive north-west of Regina, at the south end of Last Mountain Lake, which is 93 km long and runs north from there, so you look up the length of the lake rather than across farmland. Regina Beach has about 1,300 people, so there is little town glow.

It is about four hours away and is a Dark Sky Preserve, designated in 2009, and the park follows dark-sky lighting rules. The West Block entrance at Val Marie is an hour and a half south of Swift Current. Parks Canada warns that every road into the park is gravel, GPS directions are not always right and cell coverage is unreliable, so plan the route before dark.

Yes. The Regina Centre of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada runs the Kalium Observatory at the Saskatchewan Science Centre, in the old Powerhouse building in Wascana Centre. Volunteers hold free public observing through the year. It is in the city, so it suits the moon, planets and stars better than the aurora.

In Regina, you usually need at least Kp 5 to have a reasonable chance of seeing the northern lights. Lower Kp can still bring a faint aurora display low on the northern horizon, but it is less common.

This is based on magnetic latitude, and Kp index is a global geomagnetic index, so treat it as a rule of thumb, not a location-specific guarantee.