Northern Lights Forecast for Gällivare

Northern Lights in Gällivare

Gällivare is an iron-mining town of about 12,000 people, about 60 km north of the Arctic Circle in the far north of Sweden. Dundret, an 823 m mountain, rises about 5 km south-west of the center, and it is where the town goes for the open view: the midnight sun in summer, the aurora from autumn to early spring.

Dundret above the town

The whole mountain is a 52 km² nature reserve. Two roads leave the E45 for it: one to the ski area, and Femmanvägen, a paved road that climbs to a car park near the top of the lifts, close to the Fjällstugan summit cabin from 1958. In winter Femmanvägen is groomed as a ski trail, so the drive to the top is a summer thing; ask locally how far up you can get by car before heading out after dark. On a clear day the summit view reaches Kebnekaise.

The ski season runs from early November to around the end of April. Gällivare is just south of the polar night: at the winter solstice almost the whole sun clears the horizon as seen from the summit, so even December has a short spell of daylight here.

Malmberget and the mine under it

Ore has been mined at Malmberget, 5 km from the center, since the 1740s; LKAB works it deep underground. The mine has undermined the old town, leaving a large pit, Kaptensgropen, that splits it in two, and most of Malmberget has been moved away. Its population fell from 5,590 in 2010 to under 1,000 by the end of 2020, and many people and institutions moved into Gällivare.

Gällivare’s old church, Ettöreskyrkan, was built in 1744 for the Sámi of the area with money raised across Sweden, one öre from every household.

The Malmbanan, the Inlandsbanan and the road to Laponia

The railway station, an 1890s building by Folke Zettervall, is on the Malmbanan, with regional trains to Luleå and Kiruna. The Inlandsbanan ends here and runs only in summer. Gällivare Lapland Airport, about 8 km east of town, has flights to Stockholm Arlanda. By road, Kiruna is about 120 km north and Jokkmokk about 100 km south on the E45.

Laponia lies to the west. The road to Stora Sjöfallet National Park, protected since 1909, starts at Porjus, between Gällivare and Jokkmokk, and runs west past Vietas; the Naturum Laponia visitor center at Stora Sjöfallet covers the whole World Heritage area.