Northern lights tonight in Scotland

Scotland sits at about 61° magnetic latitude, so the aurora reaches it from roughly Kp 2.8 — many nights each month. The card below reads NOAA's oval, tonight's dark hours, the cloud and the Moon for Dunnet Head, Caithness right now.

Scotland sees the aurora far more often than England because the magnetic pole leans toward it: Caithness and Orkney are at about 61° magnetic latitude, so a Kp 3 night — an ordinary active night — puts an arc over the Pentland Firth from Dunnet Head, the mainland's northernmost point, with nothing but sea to the pole. Skye and the north-west coast are as dark as anywhere in Europe and as cloudy. Galloway in the south-west is the UK's first Dark Sky Park and needs Kp 5 for the arc, which it gets several times a winter. Edinburgh and Glasgow need about Kp 5 and a clear northern horizon, which the Pentlands and Campsies provide.