Best time to see the northern lights in Billings, Montana

Billings gets under one clear night a year — 0.7 in a typical year. Only an extreme storm brings the aurora within reach: aurora needs Kp 7 or higher, which the planetary index last reached on 21 January 2026. September carries the most of that thin history, at 0.12 clear nights in a typical year, which is not a month worth booking.

These are 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 Billings forecast shows the actual cloud, moon and darkness right now. Check tonight's forecast for Billings →

🌌 Clear nights a year

0.7

Storm nights only — Under one clear aurora night a year: 0.7 clear nights in a typical year.

🌟 Best month

September

0.12 clear nights in a typical year — a storm night, not a season

⚡ Kp needed

Kp 7

Horizon threshold; last reached 21 January 2026

🧭 Auroral oval (model)

Overhead

Model estimate at Kp 7, magnetic latitude 53°

Month by month in Billings

Astronomical darkness, the nights on which planetary Kp reached Kp 7 inside that darkness, the same count over the current solar cycle alone, and what the local cloud normal leaves of the long-run figure.

Month	Astronomical darkness	Opportunity nights	Since 2023	Mean cloud	Clear opportunity nights	Moon-free
January	11.31h	0.13	0.54	72.3%	0.04	52.9%
February	10.24h	0	0	73.7%	0	53.2%
March	8.67h	0.1	0.27	72.6%	0.03	53.5%
April	6.71h	0.23	0.27	70.8%	0.07	55.3%
May	4.53h	0.13	0.54	69%	0.04	52.2%
June	3.09h	0.03	0	56.9%	0.01	51.1%
July	3.93h	0.03	0	43.4%	0.02	54%
August	6.07h	0.2	0.27	46.6%	0.11	55.5%
September	8.11h	0.23	0.54	48.6%	0.12	56.3%
October	9.8h	0.33	0.54	63%	0.12	54.7%
November	11.08h	0.36	0.54	67.2%	0.12	54.8%
December	11.69h	0.03	0	72.5%	0.01	55.1%

Opportunity nights are the whole 1996–2026 record. In the current solar cycle alone (since 2023), September has averaged 0.54 rather than 0.23.

September: 8.11h of astronomical darkness a night
September: 0.23 nights reach the Kp threshold inside that darkness
September: 48.6% mean cloud leaves 0.12 of them clear
September: 56.3% of those nights are moon-free

Nearby in Montana

The strongest locations in the same state, by clear aurora nights a year.

Glasgow — 2.1 clear nights a year, Kp 6
Great Falls — 2.1 clear nights a year, Kp 6
Havre — 2 clear nights a year, Kp 6
Kalispell — 1.7 clear nights a year, Kp 6
Bozeman — 0.7 clear nights a year, Kp 7
Helena — 0.7 clear nights a year, Kp 7

Aurora season across Montana →

How these numbers were made

Evaluated at: Billings, 45.7833° N 108.5007° W — darkness and cloud are properties of that point, not of a region.
Darkness: sun geometric altitude at or below -18 degrees (astronomical twilight). 10-minute samples across every year of the Kp record (1996-2026), averaged per night of each month rather than sampled on one representative day.
Geomagnetic record: GFZ Potsdam planetary Kp index, 3-hourly, 1996-01-01 to 2026-09-07 — 89,661 intervals, licensed CC BY 4.0.
Cloud: NASA POWER SYN1DEG 20-year Meteorological and Solar Monthly & Annual Climatologies (January 2001 - December 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 estimate, reported separately. The figure for this location is above, beside the measured record it never replaces.
Clear opportunity nights: clear opportunity nights = nights on which at least one 3-hour Kp interval falls inside local astronomical darkness and reaches the location’s horizon threshold, scaled by (1 - monthly mean cloud amount)
Dataset version: Version 2026-09-07, computed offline by seo-ops scripts/aurora-usa-best-time-data.ts.

The same dataset for every tracked city and state is published at US Aurora Season Climatology, and how the live forecast is built is on the methodology page. Kp record: GFZ Potsdam (CC BY 4.0). Cloud normal: NASA POWER.

Frequently asked questions

When can you see the northern lights in Billings?

There is no season for it. Billings averages 0.7 clear nights of aurora a year across the 1996–2026 Kp record, so the answer is whenever an extreme storm happens to fall on a dark, clear night. September holds the most of that history, at 0.12 clear nights in a typical year. Watch the live forecast rather than the calendar.

What Kp is needed to see the aurora from Billings?

Billings needs Kp 7 or higher for aurora on the northern horizon, Kp 8 for a noticeable display and Kp 9 for a bright one. The NOAA auroral-oval model places the oval overhead at Billings once the planetary index reaches Kp 7. That is a model estimate; the dates on this page come from the measured Kp record instead.

Has the aurora ever been visible from Billings?

Yes. In the 1996–2026 planetary Kp record the index reached the horizon threshold for Billings, Kp 7, most recently on 21 January 2026, and the Kp 8 needed for a noticeable display on 12 November 2025. Whether anyone saw it also depended on the cloud, moonlight and darkness of that night, which the Kp record does not carry.