Aurora locations / The Catlins

Aurora tonight in The Catlins

New Zealand, New Zealand · 46.55°S, 169.44°E

Open the full The Catlins forecast →

Live hour-by-hour darkness, cloud, Kp and Bz — free, no account.

Why The Catlins

A remote, unlit stretch of the southeast coast facing straight out over the Southern Ocean.

How much activity you need here

At 46.5° geographic latitude, aurora typically becomes visible here once the planetary Kp index reaches about 8. Stronger geomagnetic storms push the oval overhead and light up more of the sky.

Best time to go

The southern aurora season runs from mid-March to late September, when the long southern-hemisphere nights give real darkness. Midsummer (December–January) is too bright for aurora at these latitudes.

Watch the live forecast

OvalWatch tracks NOAA space-weather, Open-Meteo cloud cover and USNO darkness for The Catlins and turns them into one honest verdict, updated every few minutes. Open The Catlins in OvalWatch →