Northern Lights in Mississippi: Tonight's Aurora Forecast
Mississippi needs about Kp 9 on the northern horizon. Live NOAA Kp, tonight's cloud cover and moon, the aurora oval map, and the darkest places to watch from.
Aurora season is open — equinox weeks bring the most stormsThe Mississippi aurora season at a glance
Live · NOAA SWPCOn 10–11 May 2024 faint red aurora was photographed from north Mississippi, including Oxford and Tupelo, during a G5 storm — the only kind that reaches this latitude.
Can you see the northern lights tonight in Mississippi?
The verdict below combines NOAA SWPC's planetary Kp forecast with the Kp 9 that Mississippi's darkest northern spots need, tonight's cloud cover from Open-Meteo at Tishomingo State Park, 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 Tishomingo State Park · Mississippi tonight…
Tonight, city by city and site by site
| Location | Cloud tonight | Kp tonight | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jackson, MS city | … | … | … |
| Tupelo, MS city | … | … | … |
| Biloxi, MS city | … | … | … |
| Tishomingo State Park est. Bortle 3 | … | … | … |
| Rainwater Observatory, French Camp est. Bortle 3 | … | … | … |
| Clark Creek Natural Area est. Bortle 3 | … | … | … |
| Sardis Lake, Holly Springs National Forest est. Bortle 4 | … | … | … |
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 Mississippi 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 Tishomingo State Park; 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 Mississippi
Mississippi aurora is a G5-only event and usually camera-only. Tishomingo or Sardis Lake in the north give you the best odds; face north, shoot long exposures, and expect deep red rather than green.
Tishomingo State Park
Northeast corner foothills with dark sky and sandstone overlooks.
Rainwater Observatory, French Camp
A public observatory and planetarium in dark Natchez Trace country, with regular open nights.
Clark Creek Natural Area
Loess bluffs near the Louisiana line with very little light.
Sardis Lake, Holly Springs National Forest
Large reservoir north of Oxford with an open water horizon.
When to see the northern lights in Mississippi
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 Mississippi 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 Mississippi
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: Mississippi is at about 44° 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 Mississippi's darkest northern areas, Kp 9 brings the oval's edge into view on the horizon; Kp 9 puts it overhead.
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.
Mississippi northern lights FAQ
More Mississippi nights and seasons
More Southeast 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 Borealis from Phoenix, AZ (53829383073)” by Michael Armijo, CC BY-SA 2.0. National picture: which states can see the aurora tonight → · check your ZIP →