Northern Lights in Utah: Tonight's Aurora Forecast
Utah needs about Kp 7 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 Utah aurora season at a glance
Live · NOAA SWPCNatural Bridges became the world's first International Dark Sky Park in 2007, and Utah has been certifying places steadily ever since; the 10 May 2024 storm was photographed from Salt Lake City and Logan.
Can you see the northern lights tonight in Utah?
The verdict below combines NOAA SWPC's planetary Kp forecast with the Kp 7 that Utah's darkest northern spots need, tonight's cloud cover from Open-Meteo at Antelope Island 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 Antelope Island State Park · Utah tonight…
Tonight, city by city and site by site
| Location | Cloud tonight | Kp tonight | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| Salt Lake City, UT city | … | … | … |
| St. George, UT city | … | … | … |
| Logan, UT city | … | … | … |
| Antelope Island State Park DarkSky Park | … | … | … |
| Bear Lake State Park est. Bortle 3 | … | … | … |
| Natural Bridges National Monument DarkSky Park | … | … | … |
| Cedar Breaks National Monument DarkSky Park | … | … | … |
| Dinosaur National Monument, Quarry Visitor Center DarkSky Park | … | … | … |
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 Utah 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 Antelope Island 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 Utah
Utah is dense with DarkSky-certified places, but for aurora you want the north: Antelope Island and Bear Lake for a Kp 7 forecast. The red-rock parks are Milky Way country, not aurora country.
Antelope Island State Park
DarkSky Park in the Great Salt Lake — the lake gives a northern water horizon from Salt Lake City.
Bear Lake State Park
The state's northernmost big lake, looking north into Idaho.
Natural Bridges National Monument
The world's first DarkSky Park (2007); the Milky Way here is as good as it gets.
Cedar Breaks National Monument
A 10,000-ft amphitheater rim with a summer star-party program.
Dinosaur National Monument, Quarry Visitor Center
The Utah side of the DarkSky Park that straddles the Colorado line, near Jensen.
When to see the northern lights in Utah
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 Utah 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 Utah
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: Utah is at about 47° 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 Utah's darkest northern areas, Kp 7 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.
Utah northern lights FAQ
More Utah nights and seasons
More Rockies 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: “Northern Lights seen from the United States on May 10, 2024 - 1” — USDAgov — Public domain. National picture: which states can see the aurora tonight → · check your ZIP →