Northern Lights Forecast for Stockholm

Northern Lights in Stockholm

Stockholm spreads across fourteen islands where Lake Mälaren meets the Baltic at 59°N, with the archipelago to the east and cloudy winters. Sweden’s aurora country is around Kiruna, more than eight degrees of latitude further north. A faint arc or a red tint low in the north can show with less, but color over the city takes about a G1 minor storm. Most displays that reach this latitude show only as a glow on the northern horizon, though the big storms carry it well past Stockholm, as far south as Malmö and Lund in Skåne.

Hagaparken, inside the city glow

Hagaparken, in Solna on the western shore of Brunnsviken just north of the center, is part of the Royal National City Park. The glow is still there, but you have water in front of you, and on a night when the aurora did reach Stockholm a reader of The Local filmed it in time-lapse from a pier in the park. Phone cameras in night mode pick up color the eye does not, so the sky over Brunnsviken can look gray to you while the photo comes out pink and green; the site’s guide to photographing the aurora with an iPhone covers the settings.

Up the Roslagen coast to Grisslehamn

Norrtälje and the Roslagen coast are about 70 km north-east, with frequent buses from Stockholm, and going that way puts the city glow behind you. Grisslehamn, the Åland ferry village on Väddö about 100 km north-east of the city, faces the open Sea of Åland with nothing lit beyond it.

Tyresta, with Stockholm to the north-west

Tyresta National Park, 20 km south-east in Haninge and Tyresö, was founded in 1993 and has pines up to 400 years old. It is properly dark, but the city lies to the north-west, so its glow sits on the side you need to watch. It works for a display that climbs high, less so for a faint arc.