Northern lights in Tok, Alaska
Tok, the first major stop on the Alaska Highway, sees roughly 21 hours of midsummer daylight.
Tok
…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 Tok 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. Tok sits at magnetic latitude 65.0°, which puts it in the Kp 2 band: when the forecast Kp for the dark hours reaches about 2, the oval's southern edge reaches Tok and displays can appear low on the northern horizon. At Kp 4 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 | 65.0° |
|---|---|
| Kp needed (horizon show) | About 2 |
| Kp for a strong overhead show | About 4+ |
| Coordinates | 63.3367°N, 142.9856°W · Interior |
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 4 night under solid cloud is still a no — which is why the verdict, not the index, leads this page.
Tok’s aurora season
Tok has a real off-season: from about Apr 12 to Aug 30 (141 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, 224 nights in 2027 get a true-dark window.
| Month (2027) | True darkness | Typical dark window, mid-month |
|---|---|---|
| January | Every night | 12 hr 12 min |
| February | Every night | 9 hr 56 min |
| March | Every night | 6 hr 50 min |
| April | 11 of 30 nights | — |
| May | No true darkness | — |
| June | No true darkness | — |
| July | No true darkness | — |
| August | 1 of 31 nights | — |
| September | Every night | 5 hr 7 min |
| October | Every night | 8 hr 57 min |
| November | Every night | 11 hr 36 min |
| December | Every night | 12 hr 50 min |
True darkness = the sun below −18° (end of astronomical twilight), computed with the standard NOAA solar algorithm for Tok’s coordinates. The live call at the top of this page uses tonight's actual window, not these averages.
Tok in daylight
Sunrise, sunset, and daylight hours for Tok — today or any date — are on our sister site: Tok at Alaska Daylight →
On the water nearby
Night fishing or camping out of Tok? The nearest tide station is VALDEZ, Port Valdez (187 mi SW) — tide predictions and minus tides at Alaska Tide Charts.