Metsähovi aurora camera
Metsähovi, Kirkkonummi, Finland
Camera at the Metsähovi radio observatory west of Helsinki, on FMI's aurora camera page.
Northern lights tonight in Helsinki
Live hourly aurora score for Helsinki, Finland: NOAA activity, cloud cover, darkness and the moon, with the nearest webcams.
Uusimaa, Finland, 60.17°N 24.94°ERovaniemi guide
Nearest webcams
Closest cameras first, including road and weather cameras within about 400 km.Live 24/7 stream from Tallinn
Tallinn, Estonia
Faces east over Tallinn; with city lights and 59°N, only strong storms show here.
Kevola Observatory all-sky camera
Paimio, south-west Finland
Astronomy club all-sky camera at Kevola Observatory in south-west Finland.
Elamuskeskus Tuuletorn aurora camera – Hiiumaa
Käina, Hiiumaa, Estonia
Aurora camera at a visitor centre on Hiiumaa island, refreshed every two minutes, plus a sunset-to-sunrise image series.
Porin Karhunvartijat aurora cameras
Pori, Satakunta, Finland
Astronomy club cameras near Pori on the west coast: an all-sky camera plus several horizon views.
Nyrölä Observatory aurora camera
Nyrölä, Jyväskylä, Finland
Amateur observatory camera north of Jyväskylä, shown on the FMI space weather centre's camera page.
Hankasalmi all-sky camera (Auroras Now!)
Hankasalmi, Central Finland
All-sky camera in Central Finland from FMI's Auroras Now! service; shows aurora reaching the south of the country.
Northern lights in Helsinki: what to expect
- Latitude
- 60.17° N
- Magnetic latitude
- 57.7°
- Kp needed
- 5+
- Clear-night chance
- ~9%
Helsinki lies at 60.17° N in Uusimaa, Finland, about 710 km south of the Arctic Circle. At a geomagnetic latitude of about 57.7°, Helsinki needs a geomagnetic storm: the oval's edge only reaches this far south from about Kp 5, and the aurora usually stays low on the northern horizon. Roughly 9% of dark, clear nights show some aurora, far fewer than in Lapland.
Nights with at least two hours of real darkness run from early August to early May; in the light summer nights between, the aurora cannot be seen. Around the winter solstice the sun is more than 12° below the horizon for about 14.5 hours a day.
Clouds decide most nights, and we have no long-term cloud record near Helsinki. The hourly score above uses the live cloud forecast for this exact spot, so on a storm night it shows whether the sky is open where you are.
Coordinates: Wikipedia. Magnetic latitude, Kp and darkness are calculated from them; the clear-night chance is a long-term average, not a forecast.