Northern Lights in Hawaii: Tonight's Aurora Forecast
Hawaii sits too far from the auroral oval for the northern lights — but its dark skies are among the best on Earth. Tonight's sky conditions, the best sites, and the science.
Aurora season is open — equinox weeks bring the most stormsThe Hawaii aurora season at a glance
Live · NOAA SWPCHawaii's skies are world-class — Mauna Kea hosts thirteen research telescopes — but the islands sit so far from the geomagnetic pole that only the 1859 Carrington-class storm is believed to have produced aurora here.
Can you see the northern lights tonight in Hawaii?
The verdict below combines NOAA SWPC's planetary Kp forecast with the Kp 9 that Hawaii's darkest northern spots need, tonight's cloud cover from Open-Meteo at Mauna Kea Visitor Information Station, the moon, and the hours of full darkness. Then each city and dark-sky site gets its own cloud reading — the sky often clears inland when the lakeshore or coast is socked in.
Reading NOAA SWPC and Open-Meteo for Mauna Kea Visitor Information Station · Hawaii tonight…
Tonight, city by city and site by site
| Location | Cloud tonight | Kp tonight | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| Honolulu, HI city | … | … | … |
| Hilo, HI city | … | … | … |
| Waimea (Kamuela), HI city | … | … | … |
| Mauna Kea Visitor Information Station est. Bortle 1 | … | … | … |
| Haleakalā summit, Maui est. Bortle 1 | … | … | … |
| Kōkeʻe State Park, Kauaʻi est. Bortle 2 | … | … | … |
| Mauna Loa Observatory Road est. Bortle 1 | … | … | … |
Cloud is the 9 pm–3 am average from Open-Meteo for each point; Kp is NOAA SWPC's maximum forecast for tonight. City rows use a city-center location — drive to a dark northern horizon for the real thing.
The aurora oval over Hawaii right now
NOAA's OVATION model maps where aurora is likely overhead in the next 30–90 minutes. Green cells mean a small chance, red a strong one. The map opens on Mauna Kea Visitor Information Station; enter a ZIP to recenter, and widen the span to see the whole oval across Canada.
Loading the NOAA OVATION aurora forecast…
Best places to see the northern lights in Hawaii
Hawaii's geomagnetic latitude is about 21° — the aurora is essentially never visible, even in the strongest storms of the modern era. Go to Mauna Kea or Haleakalā for the Milky Way and meteor showers instead.
Mauna Kea Visitor Information Station
At 9,200 ft on the Big Island — one of the finest stargazing sites on Earth.
Haleakalā summit, Maui
A 10,000-ft crater rim above the clouds.
Kōkeʻe State Park, Kauaʻi
The darkest accessible sky on Kauaʻi.
Mauna Loa Observatory Road
A paved road to 11,000 ft with almost no traffic at night.
When to see the northern lights in Hawaii
September – November autumn season
The equinox weeks around September 22 are statistically the most geomagnetically active of the year, and nights are long again. For Hawaii this is the best window to catch a G3+ storm, which happen most often around the equinoxes.
December – February cold and clear
Geomagnetic activity dips, but long nights and cold dry air give the best transparency of the year. Watch the 3-day forecast; any G3+ storm is worth a drive north.
March – April spring season
The March equinox brings the second annual peak in geomagnetic storms. Nights are still long in March. By late April the late sunsets start to cut into viewing time.
May – August short nights
Short nights and twilight — summer haze and late sunsets make faint displays hard to see. Big storms still punch through: NOAA rated the 10–11 May 2024 event G5, the top of its scale, and it was seen across most of the lower 48.
How to see — and photograph — the aurora from Hawaii
Kp, geomagnetic latitude, and solar cycle 25
The aurora forms in an oval around the geomagnetic pole, which sits over northern Canada rather than at the geographic pole. That tilt is why the eastern United States is magnetically "further north" than the West: Hawaii is at about 21° geomagnetic latitude. The planetary K-index (Kp, 0–9) measures how disturbed Earth's magnetic field is; as Kp rises, the oval expands toward the equator by roughly 2° of latitude per step. From Hawaii's darkest northern areas, Kp 9 brings the oval's edge into view on the horizon.
NOAA's G-scale is a simpler label on the same thing: G1 (Kp 5) minor, G2 (Kp 6) moderate, G3 (Kp 7) strong, G4 (Kp 8) severe, G5 (Kp 9) extreme. Solar cycle 25 reached its maximum in 2024–2025 — NOAA rated the 10–11 May 2024 storm G5, the top of its scale — and the declining phase of a cycle historically produces the biggest individual storms, so 2026 and 2027 remain good years to watch. Storms also cluster near the equinoxes, which is why September–October and March–April are "aurora season" everywhere in the lower 48.
Hawaii northern lights FAQ
More Hawaii nights and seasons
More West northern lights forecasts
Live Kp, NOAA scales and the OVATION aurora model are read in your browser from NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center (services.swpc.noaa.gov); cloud cover and sunrise/sunset from Open-Meteo. Kp thresholds are climatological rules of thumb for a dark northern horizon, not guarantees, and Bortle classes are estimates. Hero image: “Aurora April 1, 2021 - 1” by Rocky Raybell, CC BY 2.0. National picture: which states can see the aurora tonight → · check your ZIP →