Northern Lights Forecast for Kemi

Northern Lights in Kemi

Kemi is a port town of about 19,000 people at the mouth of the Kemijoki on the Bothnian Bay, at 65.7°N. It is the first Lapland town on the road north, 105 km from Oulu and 30 km from the Swedish border at Tornio. It lies about 90 km south of the Arctic Circle, so there is no polar night, but the nights are long from October to March and the sea in front of town freezes. The aurora season here is also the sea-ice season.

Watching from the frozen sea at Kemi

The Bothnian Bay freezes every winter and stays ice-covered for 110 to 190 days a year. By midwinter the bay off Kemi is a flat white plain, and a short walk out from the shore puts the whole sky in view. Ice near the mouth of the Kemijoki and along the shipping lanes can be thin or broken, so stay close to shore.

Kemi sits at the head of the bay, on its northern shore, so the sea lies south and west of the center. Stand on the ice facing north and the town’s lights are in front of you, not behind. On a strong night that does not matter, because the aurora is overhead. For a faint arc low in the north, go where the town is at your back: along the coast away from the center, or up the river valley toward Keminmaa.

Sampo and the SnowCastle

The Sampo is a 76-meter icebreaker launched in Helsinki in 1960. Kemi bought it from the state in 1987 and has run passenger cruises on the frozen bay since April 1988. Cruises run from December to early April, last three and a half to four hours, and include a float in the sea in a survival suit. They are a daytime trip, not an aurora one.

The SnowCastle, first built from snow and ice in 1996 and listed by Guinness as the largest of its kind, made Kemi’s name as a winter town; for years it was rebuilt each winter, with a chapel, a hotel and a restaurant inside. The SnowCastle area at Mansikkanokka on the shore has an indoor snow and ice exhibition open all year, and an outdoor castle is built in some winters and not in others.

Kemi station and the night trains from Helsinki

The railway station is in the middle of town and every passenger train stops there, including the overnight trains from Helsinki to Kolari and Kemijärvi. Kemi-Tornio Airport is about 6 km north of the center, with Finnair flights from Helsinki. Rovaniemi is 117 km north-east by road.