Best time to see the northern lights in Kushiro, Japan

Updated • 14:13 UTC

Kushiro has no recorded aurora opportunity: in the 1996–2026 planetary Kp record the index never reached Kp 9, the threshold this location needs, inside astronomical darkness.

Typical-year figures: a 1996–2026 planetary Kp record crossed with a 2001–2020 cloud normal. They describe a normal year, not tonight — the live Kushiro forecast shows the actual cloud, moon and darkness right now. Check tonight's forecast for Kushiro →

🌌 Clear nights a year

None on record — under one clear aurora night a year: 0 in a typical year Compare with Japan

🌟 Best Month

None

No month reaches the threshold in this record

🌙 Peak Hours

23:00-01:00

Magnetic midnight

⚡ Required Kp

Kp 9.0+

Served for the live forecast; nights counted at Kp 9, never reached inside Kushiro's astronomical darkness in this record

🧭 Auroral oval (model)

2.8° below the northern horizon

Model estimate at Kp 9

Month by month in Kushiro

Astronomical darkness, the nights on which planetary Kp reached Kp 9 inside that darkness, the local cloud normal, and what the cloud leaves of the count.

Month	Astronomical darkness	Mean cloud	Moon-free
January	11.25h	61.5%	54.4%
February	10.26h	62.7%	55.2%
March	8.87h	64.1%	55.5%
April	7.12h	67.7%	53.1%
May	5.29h	72.7%	54.3%
June	4.12h	79.3%	53.8%
July	4.75h	83.3%	55.4%
August	6.49h	79.3%	55.6%
September	8.28h	70.6%	55.1%
October	9.82h	58.1%	53.7%
November	10.97h	58.4%	55.2%
December	11.52h	59.4%	55.3%

Similar timing: Sapporo , Valletta , Birkirkara

Higher-odds destinations: Fairbanks , Yellowknife , Tromsø

How these numbers were made

Evaluated at: Kushiro, 42.9849° N 144.382° E — darkness and cloud are properties of that point, not of a region.
Darkness: Sun at or below 18° under the horizon (astronomical twilight), sampled every 10 minutes across every year of the Kp record and averaged per night of each month rather than on one representative day.
Geomagnetic record: GFZ Potsdam planetary Kp index, 3-hourly, 1996–2026 — 89,662 intervals, licensed CC BY 4.0.
Cloud: NASA POWER 20-year monthly climatology (2001–2020), parameter CLOUD_AMT. A monthly mean, not a forecast.
Moon: A night counts as moon-free below 35% lunar illumination while the moon is up.
Auroral oval: NOAA auroral-oval model, equatorward boundary near magnetic latitude 67 − 2 × Kp. A model estimate shown beside the measured record; it never replaces it.
Clear opportunity nights: Nights on which at least one 3-hour Kp interval falls inside local astronomical darkness and reaches the count threshold, scaled by one minus the monthly mean cloud amount.
Kp threshold: Nights were counted at Kp 9 or higher, the same threshold the live forecast serves.
Dataset version: Version 2026-09-07, computed offline from the closed record — the page is regenerated, not forecast.

Kp record: GFZ Potsdam (CC BY 4.0). Cloud normal: NASA POWER. How the live forecast is built: methodology page.

Frequently Asked Questions

When can you see the northern lights in Kushiro?

Not in the 1996–2026 planetary Kp record: the index never reached Kp 9, the threshold Kushiro needs, while the sky was astronomically dark. Only a storm beyond anything in that record would change it — watch the live forecast rather than the calendar.

What Kp is needed to see the aurora from Kushiro?

Kushiro needs Kp 9, the top of the scale, for any display low on the northern horizon. The NOAA auroral-oval model puts the edge of the oval about 2.8° below the northern horizon at Kushiro at Kp 9. That is a model estimate, not a ruling on what has been seen.