New guests almost always ask for the highest KP-index night on the calendar, and we understand why — it’s the single number every aurora app puts front and center. But KP measures geomagnetic activity, not whether the sky above you is actually clear.
Some of the best displays our guides have shot happened on a KP3 night with a clean break in the cloud, while a KP7 storm sat entirely behind an overcast sky two valleys over. We plan every trip around both numbers together, and we’ll move a group mid-itinerary if the cloud forecast changes, even when the KP number looks unchanged.