Northern lights in Prudhoe Bay / Deadhorse, Alaska
At the top of the Dalton Highway, Prudhoe Bay has about two months of midnight sun and two months of polar night.
Prudhoe Bay / Deadhorse
…Checking tonight's sky…
The next three nights
Geomagnetic activity (Kp) forecast for the selected town's dark hours. Kp runs 0–9; how much a town needs depends on its magnetic latitude. New to this? What the Kp index means, in plain words → Nights tagged “outlook” use NOAA’s 27-day outlook where the 3-day forecast doesn’t reach — whole-day values, so treat them as rougher estimates.
What Prudhoe Bay / Deadhorse needs for a show
Whether aurora reaches a town is mostly a matter of magnetic latitude — distance from the magnetic pole, not the geographic one. Prudhoe Bay / Deadhorse sits at magnetic latitude 70.5°, which puts it in the Kp 1 band: when the forecast Kp for the dark hours reaches about 1, the oval's southern edge reaches Prudhoe Bay / Deadhorse and displays can appear low on the northern horizon. At Kp 3 or better, expect the band overhead at times. The same law draws the band on the homepage globe: the oval's edge at magnetic latitude 69 − 3×Kp.
| Magnetic latitude | 70.5° |
|---|---|
| Kp needed (horizon show) | About 1 |
| Kp for a strong overhead show | About 3+ |
| Coordinates | 70.2553°N, 148.3381°W · Arctic |
Kp is only one of four ingredients in the live call above: cloud cover over the dark hours, the town's actual darkness window, and moonlight all count too. A Kp 3 night under solid cloud is still a no — which is why the verdict, not the index, leads this page.
Prudhoe Bay / Deadhorse’s aurora season
Prudhoe Bay / Deadhorse has a real off-season: from about Mar 25 to Sep 17 (177 nights) the sun never dips 18° below the horizon, so it never gets truly dark and aurora can't be seen even when it's active. Outside that stretch, 188 nights in 2027 get a true-dark window.
| Month (2027) | True darkness | Typical dark window, mid-month |
|---|---|---|
| January | Every night | 12 hr 40 min |
| February | Every night | 9 hr 28 min |
| March | 24 of 31 nights | 4 hr 33 min |
| April | No true darkness | — |
| May | No true darkness | — |
| June | No true darkness | — |
| July | No true darkness | — |
| August | No true darkness | — |
| September | 13 of 30 nights | — |
| October | Every night | 8 hr 4 min |
| November | Every night | 11 hr 50 min |
| December | Every night | 13 hr 35 min |
True darkness = the sun below −18° (end of astronomical twilight), computed with the standard NOAA solar algorithm for Prudhoe Bay / Deadhorse’s coordinates. The live call at the top of this page uses tonight's actual window, not these averages.
Prudhoe Bay / Deadhorse in daylight
Sunrise, sunset, and daylight hours for Prudhoe Bay / Deadhorse — today or any date — are on our sister site: Prudhoe Bay / Deadhorse at Alaska Daylight →
On the water nearby
Night fishing or camping out of Prudhoe Bay / Deadhorse? The nearest tide station is PRUDHOE BAY (12 mi NNW) — tide predictions and minus tides at Alaska Tide Charts.