Photo: Northern lights and moonlit mountains over Vik beach, Vestvågøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. January 24, 2019. 00:13

The media hype around this year’s solar maximum and, ‘OMG!!! Best time in 10 years to see northern lights!’ No doubt means Lofoten will be busier than ever this coming winter season. But I’ll tell you a little secret – there are always northern lights on Lofoten, and most anywhere in the aurora oval. Some periods may be more quiet that other, such as January 2024, which otherwise should have been very active, but that has as much to do with the earth’s magnetic field, as it does with the activity from the sun. And of course the biggest factor for Lofoten, the weather!

If you had been to Lofoten during the previous months, then you’ll mostly have been disappointed with your northern lights chasing, as there has been a near continuous cloudy sky and stormy weather over most of northern Norway. No matter how active the sun is, if you can’t see the sky, then you cant see the northern lights. On my own, I usually only go out under ideal conditions the days, as so far that has only been a handful of nights this season.

But the good news is! There is no on-off switch for the northern lights. They will be here next year, the year after, and many years to come.

Here is an old photo from January 2019, during the solar minimum when the sun was supposed to relatively inactive. And yet here is an aurora filled sky over moonlit mountain peaks. And I have dozens of similar nights each year for the last decade. So don’t worry, the northern lights aren’t going to be ‘over’ if you don’t visit the north this year. Next year will be fine as well, and all the years into the future…

Camera Info:
Nikon D850
Sigma 14mm f/1.8
14mm
ISO 2000
f 1.8
1.3 Seconds
WB Daylight

Photo: Snow covered Stornappstind mountain peak rises over Nappstraumen, Lofoten Islands, Norway. November 27, 2024. 13:04

The temperature has slowly dropped over the last week in what otherwise has been a mild and wet November. In fact, every month since May this year has been above average in temperature after a hot summer and stormy autumn. Compared to November 2023 which was very cold, calm, and dry – 4.4˚c below average (-1.6˚c vs. normal 2.8˚c ), this November will follow October’s trend of above average precipitation and temperatures. It seems like the whole north Atlantic is quite grumpy this year as storm after storm sweeps over Lofoten and northern Norway. Hopefully this pattern breaks before my photo workshop season begins in January!

If you wanna checkout what the weather has been up to yourself, you can see the historic weather statistics on yr.no: Leknes Last 13 Months

I’ve written a lot about the weather lately, but that is because it’s one of the most important elements of any Lofoten trip. Sometimes you’ll get lucky and everything is nice and you don’t even need to think about the weather, but unfortunately, this is far from the majority of the time. So it’s generally a good idea to know a little bit about reading the weather up here – although this year, that might have been somewhat depressing if you’ve visited from late September until now.

I was actually going to post a different photo today, also from Wednesday, but a much more colorful image of what will likely have been my last sighting of the sun for the year. But it was really just a snapshot and nothing very interesting. That image was actually take from below the mountain you see here, looking south, towards the left side of the frame. In this image, just 20 minutes later and looking west, the landscape is dark and almost completely void of color. Colorful sunset vs. grey winter, just a few kilometres and minutes apart.

Camera Info:
Nikon Z8
Nikon 24-120mm f/4
62mm
ISO 100
f 8
1/13 Seconds
WB Daylight

Photo: November afternoon sunset from Ballstadheia, Vestvågøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. November 25, 2022. 13:09

November is that middle ground between no longer autumn and still not winter. Although as far as the sun is concerned, the daylight hours are similar to January and early February. So if you’re heading to the mountain for a sunset hike like I was on this afternoon up on Ballstadheia – you probably need to start hiking before lunch! Quite a difference from my after dinner hikes of summer, which was not that long ago.

In the last couple Friday photo posts, I’ve showed images of 2023’s cold November, with a -1.6˚c average temperature, was the coldest month of the whole winter – 28 out of 30 days dropped below 0˚c. November 2022, when this photo was taken, was quite a bit milder, having an average of 3.8˚c and only dropping below 0˚c on 12 days.

What both 2023 and 2022 have in common is that they were both relatively dry, with less that 50% of average rainfall for the month. Now compare this with November 2021 in which there was above average rainfall and precipitation on 29 out of 30 days – I remember it as a grey and misty month when I was struggling to get some final images for my Northern Light ebook. I would have much preferred the weather of 2022 or 2023!

So where am I going with all this? Nowhere really. Just an example of how there’s no predicting much of anything outside of general trends when it comes to Lofoten’s weather.

Camera Info:
Nikon Z7 II
Nikon 14-30mm f/4
20mm
ISO 100
f 14
1/25 Second
WB Daylight