Northern lights tonight in Montana
Montana sits at about 55° magnetic latitude, so the aurora reaches it from roughly Kp 5.4 — a few nights a year, on G2–G3 storms. The card below reads NOAA's oval, tonight's dark hours, the cloud and the Moon for Logan Pass, Glacier National Park right now.
Northern Montana is at 55–56° magnetic latitude with some of the darkest ground in the lower 48, so a Kp 5 night is worth the drive and Kp 6 brings colour. Glacier's Going-to-the-Sun Road is closed in winter; Lake McDonald's shore stays reachable and looks up the valley to the north. The Hi-Line — the Sweetgrass Hills and the plains east to Fort Peck — has a horizon that is simply the curve of the earth, which is what a 4° arc needs. Chinook winds clear the eastern sky in winter while the mountains hold cloud; check the two forecasts separately.
The oval now, pole to 40°, Montana's meridian at the bottom. Dashed: tonight's forecast Kp.
Reading NOAA…
Logan Pass, Glacier National Park
rows: dark · oval · clear · no Moon — the window is the run of green hours
Reading NOAA…
Where to go in Montana
Three sites a photographer would drive to, each with its measured ground darkness from the light pollution atlas and its own verdict for tonight. Coordinates are approximate: a viewpoint, a shore, a car park.
- Logan Pass, Glacier National Parkreading the atlas…—Verdict at this site →
- Fort Peck Lakereading the atlas…—Verdict at this site →
- Sweetgrass Hillsreading the atlas…—Verdict at this site →
Kp now and the three nights ahead
Starting settings if aurora is visible
NOAA's hemispheric power measures activity across the hemisphere, not brightness at your pin. These exposure starting points do not guarantee a sighting; check the local viewing window and sky, then adjust a test photo.
Bright, moving aurora smears at anything over about 4 s: open the aperture or raise ISO rather than lengthen the shutter.
Plan the sequence · stack the night when you are back · the photography guide →
Other places
Sources
Aurora grid, Kp, solar wind and alerts: NOAA SWPC, read live by your browser. Cloud: MET Norway (CC BY 4.0), which receives the site's coordinates rounded to two decimals. Ground darkness: this site's atlas. Magnetic latitude: AACGM-v2 at 110 km (IGRF-14); the Kp threshold from NOAA's viewing table.