The Northern Lights – Icelands Aurora Borealis

It's true what they say... the only thing better than experiencing the northern lights is to share it with someone else for their first time. .
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Deep in Iceland's Westfjords region a group of traveling surfers watches natures fireworks. This photograph was taken in October during some of the first auroras of the year. This celestial event can often be seen until around April.

When are the Northern Lights visible in Iceland?

The Northern Lights, or Aurora Borealis, are one of Iceland’s most famous attractions. These beautiful green (and sometimes white, pink and purple!) lights dance around the sky in Iceland quite frequently – but can only be seen in the wintertime. The reason: In order to see them, first of all, it needs to be dark. So even though the Northern Lights occur all year round, you’re unable to see them in the summertime because of the midnight sun.

People flock to Iceland during the winter time in order to see these elusive but beautiful lights and every time I meet someone that learns I'm from Iceland, I get bombarded with questions about them. So here I intend to answer the most common questions about the Northern Lights.

Wintertime is the perfect time to go see them, if you're interested in booking a Northern Lights tour!

For a schedule on how active they are each night, you can check the Icelandic Aurora Light Forecast, updated daily, or The Aurora Service Forecast, with an hourly forecast.

What do the Northern Lights look like?

The Northern Lights come in various colours with varying intensity and brightness and in different shapes. The most common colour is the pale green and sometimes pink/red. Occasionally shades of yellow, white, blue and violet can be seen as well.

Here is a great example of the pink and violet amidst the pale (but vivid!) green.

The intensity can be very low, so when you’re craning your neck and squinting your eyes looking up in the sky to try to figure out if you’re looking at Northern Lights or just a cloud with some light pollution in it - then you may be seeing the lights at a very low intensity. (Or a cloud with some light pollution in it - coming from a nearby town, or the moon even). Stick around for a while and see if it changes.

When is the best time to see the Northern Lights in Iceland?

Besides it having to be dark, you’ll also need a clear sky to see the Northern Lights – or at least a partially clear sky. Otherwise, obviously, the clouds will cover your view, seeing as the lights appear from around 80 km (50 miles) up to 640 km (400 miles) above the earth’s surface – whereas high-level clouds are only about 6 km (20,000 feet) above the earth’s surface.

Here's a stunning example of the clouds partially covering the view of the lights.
Sometimes if you wait for a few minutes, the lights become stronger and may even do a little dance.