Aurora Borealis in Fort St. John

Canada · 56.25°, -120.85° · geomagnetic 61.7° · needs Kp 5

Tonight in Fort St. John

28%

Peak chance of a visible display tonight, from the same model the Revon app runs. Fort St. John needs Kp 5 to see anything at all, and tonight the forecast peaks at Kp 4.7. Short of the threshold, which is what most nights look like here.

Tonight Sun 02 Aug
28%
18
20
22
00
02
04
06
Tomorrow Mon 3 Aug
15%
Hour-by-hour for this night is in the app
Tuesday Tue 4 Aug
2%
Hour-by-hour for this night is in the app

Unlock every hour in the app

Updated 2026-08-02 20:20 UTC

The next 30 nights in Fort St. John

Every night to come, scored the same way as tonight. The best of the open week is Sunday 2 Aug at 28%. Not one of the seven reaches the Kp 5 that Fort St. John needs, which is normal rather than unlucky — it averages 22.5 viable nights a year. The 23 nights past the seven-day window move with the 27-day solar rotation and are updated daily in the app.

Low activity for the next few days. Moderate aurora expected on August 19th.

Sun 2
28%
Kp 4.7
Mon 3
15%
Kp 3.3
Tue 4
2%
Kp 0.0
Wed 5
23%
Kp 3.0
Thu 6
23%
Kp 3.0
Fri 7
6%
Kp 2.0
Sat 8
6%
Kp 2.0

Nights 8–30 unlock in the Revon app

See all 30 nights for Fort St. John

Revon aurora model over the NOAA Kp forecast and 27-day outlook

How often the aurora borealis reaches Fort St. John

22.5 nights a year, averaged across 10.0 years of records

Storm levelNights / year
Kp 483.4
Kp 528.7
Kp 69.3
Kp 73.2
Kp 81.2

NOAA planetary Kp, 2016-04-02 to 2026-03-30

Worth watching through the dark half of the year

Kp 5 is a moderate storm — not an everyday event, but common enough that a patient observer in Fort St. John sees the aurora borealis most winters.

Hours of true darkness, month by month

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
11.910.38.14.70.00.00.02.87.09.611.512.3

Solar declination and hour angle at −18°

Nothing to see from May to July

Through those months the sun never falls more than 18° below the Fort St. John horizon, so the sky never darkens fully. Plan around the darker half of the year.

Getting clear of the light

Fort St. John is small enough that its own lights are a minor problem — the centre reads Bortle 5. Walking to the edge of town is often escape enough.

Falchi 2016 World Atlas (DOI: 10.5880/GFZ.1.4.2016.001)

The months that actually deliver

Counting only nights that were both stormy enough and dark enough, September, March and October came out ahead in Fort St. John. That is storm season and darkness overlapping — the equinoxes tend to be geomagnetically active, and the nights are already long by then.

Darkest nights of the coming year

A bright moon washes out a weak display as effectively as street lighting. These new moons fall inside the Fort St. John viewing season.

Where it is close to a certainty

If you would rather plan a trip than wait for a storm, the nearest place with genuinely frequent aurora is Yellowknife, 781 km north-north-east in Canada.

Fort St. JohnYellowknife
Kp needed53
Nights per year22.5 171.4
Geomagnetic latitude61.7° 68.6°

See the Yellowknife forecast

Confirmed reports from this area

6 verified sightings were logged within 300 km of Fort St. John between 2015-01-01 and 2016-12-31. Rare is not the same as impossible.

Aurorasaurus verified positive reports

Where the horizon opens up near Fort St. John

The display sits low on the northern horizon, so what beats a better forecast is open ground facing that way. Height gets you above the town glow; water gives you an unbroken skyline. These are within a short drive of Fort St. John.

Places from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)

Where to stay

Anywhere on the outskirts of Fort St. John will do; what matters is being able to step outside and check the sky without a drive first.

Places from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0) — confirm before booking

The last nights it was visible here

Nights in the last decade when the storm was strong enough for Fort St. John and the sky was dark enough to show it.

DatePeak
2026-03-24Kp 5.0
2026-03-23Kp 5.0
2026-03-22Kp 6.67
2026-03-21Kp 6.0
2026-03-20Kp 7.0

NOAA planetary Kp

Know when it is worth going outside

Revon watches the Fort St. John forecast and pushes an alert when the odds for tonight clear your threshold — no checking, no guessing.

Get aurora alerts on iPhone

Common questions about the aurora borealis in Fort St. John

Can you see the aurora borealis from Fort St. John?

Yes. On the last 10.0 years of NOAA Kp records, Fort St. John had about 22.5 nights a year when the storm was strong enough and the sky dark enough at the same time.

What Kp index do you need to see the aurora borealis in Fort St. John?

Kp 5. Fort St. John sits at geomagnetic latitude 61.7°, and the auroral oval only reaches that far from the pole once activity hits Kp 5. Storms that size occur about 28.7 nights a year.

When is the best time of year to see the aurora borealis in Fort St. John?

September, March and October. Those months scored highest once both conditions are counted together: geomagnetic activity and enough hours of real darkness. From May to July the sky over Fort St. John never gets fully dark, so nothing is visible however strong the storm.

Where can you escape the light pollution near Fort St. John?

The centre of Fort St. John reads Bortle 5. The nearest sky at Bortle 4 is about 22 km east around Area B (Finlay Valley/Beatton Valley). On a marginal night that drive matters more than the forecast does.

Where is the nearest place to Fort St. John with reliable aurora borealis?

Yellowknife, Canada — 781 km north-north-east. It needs only Kp 3 and averages 171.4 viable nights a year against 22.5 in Fort St. John.

Nearby towns

Forecasts for places within reach of Fort St. John.