Thanks to Yellowknife's prime spot below the auroral oval, our community is the best place in the North, and the world, to view the Northern Lights. If your goal is to see a dazzling Aurora Borealis show, with the lights spiralling all around you, Yellowknife is the place to see it! You'll be picking your jaw off of the ground when you leave, with a memorable story and photos to show your friends and family.
Yellowknife has two main Aurora viewing seasons: Autumn and Winter. The Aurora casts its magical spell over Yellowknife for more than half of the year, where you can see the lights on various nights for approximately 28 weeks.
Autumn, when the land is warmer and lakes are accessible, begins in late August when the summer's midnight sun disappears until mid-October when the clouds settle in. During this time you can pitch a tent and camp under the Northern Lights, or hop in a canoe or kayak and paddle beneath it. Talk about an adventure of your lifetime!
The winter, if you're looking for a different adventure, launches in December when the nights are colder and the sky is clearer. When you come in this season, you get an immersive experience of seeing Yellowknife's 18 hour darkness, seriously Northern temperatures, and some amazing snow spectacles. While you're here, try dog sledding, cross-country skiing or snowboarding, snowshoe to the Ice Caves, check out a snowmobile tour, and get out on a lake to icefish.
Whatever season you choose, we have dozens of tour operators offering Aurora experiences for every taste and budget. Some operate comfortable aurora viewing facilities away from the city, while others will take you on an evening "hunt" for the Aurora over ice roads, or along darkened trails.
Our near-nightly magic show has an additional special season - the Romance Season.
When the Aurora dances in the sky, romance is in the air. The setting is beautiful, peaceful and relaxing – an ideal place to cuddle up with the person you love and watch the light show of a lifetime. Mid- February and Valentine's Day attract the aurora/romance seekers.
Auroral Activity Forecast
Aurora Boreals is from the Roman name Aurora, goddess of dawn, and the Greek word "Boreas, the north wind." Despite this supernatural name, the Aurora is purely chemical. When charged particles eject from the sun and crash into the Earth's magnetosphere, atoms are set aglow, just like in a neon sign. To track the probability of active aurora (periods of unsettled geomagnetic field conditions) check out Astronomy North's aurora forecast. astronomynorth.com/aurora-forecast.
The auroral activity which lights the sky is actually between 100 and 500 kilometres overhead and the most commonly viewed lights are various shades of green. Pink, red, and lavender are rarer.
For information on aurora experiences check out the operators on NWT Tourism's website.
