Northern Lights in Washington: Tonight's Aurora Forecast
Washington needs about Kp 5 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 Washington aurora season at a glance
Live · NOAA SWPCSeattle sits at roughly the same geomagnetic latitude as Portland, Maine, so the Puget Sound lowlands get better aurora odds than their map latitude suggests. Goldendale Observatory was a DarkSky Park from 2010 until the designation was revoked in 2017 — it is still one of the best public observatories in the Northwest, just not certified.
Can you see the northern lights tonight in Washington?
The verdict below combines NOAA SWPC's planetary Kp forecast with the Kp 5 that Washington's darkest northern spots need, tonight's cloud cover from Open-Meteo at Artist Point, 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 Artist Point · Washington tonight…
Tonight, city by city and site by site
| Location | Cloud tonight | Kp tonight | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seattle, WA city | … | … | … |
| Spokane, WA city | … | … | … |
| Yakima, WA city | … | … | … |
| Artist Point, Mount Baker est. Bortle 2 | … | … | … |
| Winthrop, Methow Valley est. Bortle 2 | … | … | … |
| Hurricane Ridge, Olympic National Park est. Bortle 3 | … | … | … |
| Goldendale Observatory State Park est. Bortle 3 | … | … | … |
| Palouse Falls State Park est. Bortle 2 | … | … | … |
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 Washington 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 Artist Point; 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 Washington
The Methow and Okanogan valleys are the pick — dry, dark and far north. From Seattle, the Mukilteo–Edmonds waterfront and Rattlesnake Lake work for Kp 6+; Whidbey Island's north beaches are the better drive.
Artist Point, Mount Baker
A 5,100-ft road-end in the far north; open to the north across the Cascades into BC.
Winthrop, Methow Valley
Dry-side valley with a DarkSky-pending community and a clean northern horizon.
Hurricane Ridge, Olympic National Park
The ridge looks north across the Strait of Juan de Fuca to Vancouver Island.
Goldendale Observatory State Park
A large public telescope on a dark hilltop above the Columbia, with regular public viewing nights. Certified as a DarkSky Park in 2010, but the certification was revoked in 2017 and has not been reinstated.
Palouse Falls State Park
Eastern Washington canyon with dark sky in every direction.
When to see the northern lights in Washington
September – November autumn season
The equinox weeks around September 22 are statistically the most geomagnetically active of the year, and nights are long again. In Washington this is prime time — a Kp 5 night shows an arc on the northern horizon, and clear, dry autumn air helps.
December – February long dark nights
Fewer storms than the equinoxes but 14+ hours of darkness and often the clearest, driest air of the year. Dress for it — the best displays come after midnight.
March – April spring season
The March equinox brings the second annual peak in geomagnetic storms. Nights are still long in March, and Washington's snow cover makes the landscape glow under even a faint display. 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 Washington
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: Washington is at about 53° 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 Washington's darkest northern areas, Kp 5 brings the oval's edge into view on the horizon; Kp 7 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.
Washington northern lights FAQ
More Washington 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 →