Northern Lights Forecast for Vardø

Northern Lights in Vardø

Vardø is Norway’s easternmost town, a fishing port of about 1,700 people on the island of Vardøya off the tip of the Varanger Peninsula, at 70.4°N and 31°E, further east than Istanbul. The island is treeless, with the open Barents Sea to the north and east, so nothing on the horizon blocks the aurora. The weather does: Vardø is unsheltered, and Arctic storms off the sea are a regular part of winter here. The polar night lasts from about 24 November to 19 January.

Kiberg, Domen and the winter-closed road to Hamningberg

On the island, the shore looks out over open sea, and the white dome of the Globus radar station on the hill above town makes an unusual foreground.

Across the subsea tunnel on the mainland, the E75 runs south past Domen, a flat-topped 164 m hill on the coast, to the village of Kiberg about 10 km from town. Kibergsneset, just east of the village, is the easternmost point of the Norwegian mainland.

North of the tunnel, the coast road runs past Smelror toward Hamningberg, about 40 km away, an abandoned fishing village that survived the burning of Finnmark in 1944 and was emptied in 1964. The stretch from Smelror to Hamningberg is part of the Varanger National Tourist Route and is closed in winter, usually from November or December until April or May.

Vardøhus Fortress and the Steilneset Memorial

There has been a fortress on the island since the early 1300s, and Vardøhus Fortress is still run by the Royal Norwegian Navy. On the first day the sun comes back after the polar night, the fortress fires a salute and the town’s schoolchildren get the rest of the day off.

The Steilneset Memorial, opened in 2011, remembers the 91 people executed in the 17th-century Finnmark witch trials. Peter Zumthor’s long wooden hall has 91 small windows, each with a single bulb, and Louise Bourgeois’s glass and steel pavilion next to it holds a chair with flames rising through its seat.

Eiders and the Hornøya bird cliff in late winter

In late winter, birders come for the king eiders and Steller’s eiders. Hornøya, a bird cliff island a short boat ride from the harbor and the easternmost point of Norway, fills with seabirds from March.

The Hurtigruten stop and the Vardø Tunnel

The Vardø Tunnel, opened in 1982, runs 2.9 km under the Bussesundet strait and was Norway’s first subsea road tunnel. Vardø Airport is at Svartnes, at the mainland end of the tunnel, with small planes to Kirkenes and other towns in Finnmark. Hurtigruten ships call every day. By road, the E75 is the only way in.