Northern lights tonight in Scotland

Scotland sits at about 56° magnetic latitude, so the aurora reaches it from roughly Kp 5.0 — a few nights a month in an active year. 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 it lies three to six degrees further north: Caithness and Orkney are at about 56° magnetic latitude, so a Kp 5 night — a G1 storm — 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 7 for the arc, which it gets a few nights a year. Edinburgh and Glasgow need about Kp 6.5 and a clear northern horizon, which the Pentlands and Campsies provide.