Northern Lights Forecast for Jukkasjärvi

Northern Lights in Jukkasjärvi

Jukkasjärvi is a village of about 750 people on the north bank of the Torne River, about 17 km east of Kiruna. Most visitors know it for the Icehotel. For the aurora, the useful thing is the river: frozen over in winter, it opens up the sky right at the edge of the village, with the lights of Kiruna 17 km away to the west.

The frozen Torne in front of the village

The village sits on a still-water stretch of the Torne, and in winter people ski and snowshoe on the ice in front of it. Everything in the village is within walking distance of the river, so this is the open sky you can reach without a car.

Esrange at the end of the road east

About 25 km further east is Esrange Space Center, where sounding rockets and research balloons have gone up since 1966, aurora studies among them. An unstaffed visitor center at the gates explains the work.

Icehotel ice from the Torne

The Icehotel grew out of ice art exhibitions in 1989 and 1990. It is rebuilt every winter to a new design from blocks of Torne River ice cut the spring before, and a permanent ice building beside it stays frozen all year.

The church and the Sámi market place

The red wooden church has a central section from about 1607 and was rebuilt and extended in 1726. Its altarpiece is a carved teak triptych by Bror Hjorth, a gift from the mining company LKAB for the church’s 350th anniversary in 1958. The side panels show scenes from the life of the priest Lars Levi Laestadius.

The Sámi name for the village, Čohkkiras, comes from a lake name meaning “lake of assembly”, and the village grew up around a Sámi market place. Sámi Siida Márkanbáiki, an open-air museum with reindeer, covers reindeer herding and the nomadic way of life.

Fifteen minutes from Kiruna Airport

Kiruna Airport, which has flights from Stockholm, is about a 15-minute drive away, and Kiruna railway station, where the night train from Stockholm arrives, is 15 to 20 minutes away. A local bus from Kiruna takes about 30 minutes.