How will I know if the Northern Lights will appear?

There is never a guarantee of spotting the northern lights, but northern lights forecasting is generally accurate – it’s much more reliable than the weather forecast. The forecast corresponds to the planetary magnetic index (Kp) on a scale of one to nine, with one being very low activity and nine very high. The Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska has an excellent website (www.gi.alaska.edu/AuroraForecast/Europe/), which allows you to view predicted activity in all auroral regions. You can also sign up for northern lights forecast email alerts that tell you when activity rises above four to five on the Kp scale. There are also many other sites that help to predict and forecast the northern lights or the aurora borealis.