# The northern lights have been seen from Romania. How many times since records began?

Three times in three years: November 2023, May 2024 and January 2026. Since 1932, 23 storms have been strong enough to bring the aurora down to us. Pick your town and see what the measurements say.

By Marius Comper · 22 September 2026 · GFZ Potsdam data — see [sources](#surse)

## How many times has the aurora been seen from Romania?

The northern lights sound like something for Lapland, not for us. Choose before you read on.

**Three times — documented. And 23 storms were strong enough.**

5 November 2023, 10–11 May 2024, 19–20 January 2026: three nights when press or footage show the aurora above Romania. The rest of the great storms passed with no Romanian record — clouds, a full Moon, or nobody watching the northern sky.

## Twenty-three storms strong enough

The Kp index measures, every three hours, how hard Earth's magnetic field is shaking. At 9, the aurora typically sinks to 40° magnetic latitude — and Romania sits between 40.3° and 44.9°.

The newest of them was the Gannon storm of 10–11 May 2024: Dst of −412 nT, the sixth largest since 1957, after 12 X-class flares from a single sunspot region. 696 witnesses from more than 30 countries described where they saw it — some from 30° magnetic latitude, far further south than the models predicted.

Before it came a 21-year pause: no Kp-9 storm between October 2003 and May 2024. And the first of the three Romanian nights beat the tables: in November 2023 the aurora was seen from Romania at Kp 7.33, below the level the guides say Bucharest can hope for.

The chart also holds storms with no star: January 1938, March 2015, October 2024 — all strong, all with no Romanian record found. A great storm is a chance, not an observation.

27 days at Kp 9, in 23 storms · 247 days at Kp ≥ 8 · 554 storms at Kp ≥ 7

## How far north you are, magnetically

The compass does not point at the North Pole but at the magnetic pole — and the aurora follows it, not geography. Every town has its own magnetic latitude; the higher it is, the more often the curtain reaches it.

All 23 storms on the chart were strong enough for you — and November 2023 showed it sometimes arrives on less.

## The red comes from high up, from 300 kilometres

From Lapland the aurora is green and dances overhead. From Romania you only see the curtain's edge, its highest part — and up there, the only colour that survives is red.

The 557.7-nanometre green comes from oxygen atoms struck by the solar wind, 120 to 400 kilometres up. The red comes from oxygen too, but from a state that lives over 150 seconds — down low the atoms would collide and quench; only the thin air above 300 kilometres lets it glow.

That is why red curtains stand 320–480 kilometres (200–300 miles) high: in 1938 one lit the sands of the Sahara. And why photos lie a little: the phone sensor catches wavelengths the eye misses, so the picture shows more red than you saw.

## How to catch one

No serious page tells you when the next one comes — but it can tell you where to look and when it is worth leaving the house.

- **Check the live dashboard, not this page** NOAA's 30-minute forecast shows the auroral oval live. If its green edge touches central Europe, dress warmly.

- **Find darkness and a northern horizon** Get out of town, after moonset, under a clear sky with a clear view down to the northern horizon. Clouds decide most nights.

- **At Kp 7 and up, it is worth a look** The tables ask Kp 9 for Bucharest, but November 2023 showed at 7.33. Look north for several good minutes: eyes adjust slowly to faint red.

- **Photograph it, but trust your eyes** Phone on a fence post, long exposure, and you will catch more than you see. Remember, though: the photo is redder than the night.

[NOAA aurora forecast, live](https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/aurora-30-minute-forecast)

## True or false?

Eight claims about the aurora above Romania. Every answer comes with its source.

- **The aurora was seen from Romania in November 2023.** True. Kanal D's evening news led with it: the aurora "set fire to" the sky over several counties. ([Kanal D news, 6 November 2023](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lq7ROCuDP-w))

- **The storm must always reach Kp 9 for Romania to see it.** False. November 2023 peaked at Kp 7.33 — below every published table. The tables are approximate. ([GFZ Potsdam, Kp for 5 November 2023](https://kp.gfz.de/en/data))

- **From Romania, the aurora is usually red, not green.** True. You see the curtain's top edge, from above 300 kilometres, where oxygen glows red. ([the NOAA aurora tutorial](https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/content/aurora-tutorial))

- **The January 1938 storm was definitely seen from Romania.** False. It peaked at Kp 8.67 — a strong storm, but no Romanian record survives. A storm is not a sighting. ([GFZ Potsdam, Kp for January 1938](https://kp.gfz.de/en/data))

- **The May 2024 storm was the sixth largest since 1957.** True. Dst of −412 nT on 11 May, after 12 X-class flares from the same sunspot region. ([Hayakawa et al. 2024, Astrophysical Journal](https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ad9335))

- **A phone shows the aurora exactly as the eye sees it.** False. The sensor catches wavelengths the eye misses; photos show more red than you saw. ([the University of Alaska Geophysical Institute](https://www.gi.alaska.edu/alaska-science-forum/red-aurora-rare-enough-be-special))

- **At Kp 9, the aurora typically reaches down to 40° magnetic latitude.** True. That is NOAA's figure — and Bucharest sits at 41.12°. Marginal, but inside. ([the NOAA G-scale](https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/noaa-scales-explanation))

- **This page tells you when the next aurora comes.** False. We give no forecasts. We do show you where to check NOAA's live dashboard. ([NOAA's live dashboard](https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/aurora-30-minute-forecast))

## This page's limits

Three documented nights do not mean three nights that happened. Here is what the measurements do not say.

- **A storm is not an observation** The chart shows storms. We know Romania actually saw it only for the nights with press or footage — the rest are chances, not certainties.

- **Kp–latitude tables are approximate** Sources give different thresholds, and November 2023 beat them all: the aurora was seen from Romania at Kp 7.33.

- **Clouds decide most nights** A Kp-9 storm under an overcast sky shows from nowhere. A full Moon and city lights wipe out the faint red too.

- **Before phones, nights went unrecorded** The May 2024 storm was the first of its size in the era of good camera phones. How many of the earlier 22 were seen from Romania with no record left we will never know.

- **Magnetic latitude drifts slowly** The magnetic pole wanders, so the table values are for the 2025 epoch. Over a human lifetime the change is small.

## Sources and method

We started from the Niemegk Observatory (GFZ Potsdam) daily file: 34,598 days of Kp index, 1 January 1932 to 21 September 2026, definitive to 31 March 2026. From it we grouped Kp ≥ 7 days into 554 storms, 23 of which reached Kp 9. Magnetic latitudes are AACGM-v2, computed for 300 km altitude at the 2025 epoch, for the 101 OpenStreetMap towns.

The three Romanian nights come from dated press and footage, each with two independent sources. We admit what we did not find: for the great storms of January 1938, March 2015 and October 2024 no Romanian record turned up, so they sit on the chart with no star.

- GFZ Potsdam, Niemegk Observatory: the planetary Kp index and derived indices, 1932–2026. https://kp.gfz.de/en/data — the daily file behind our 23 Kp-9 storms
- Matzka, J., et al. (2021). The geomagnetic Kp index and derived indices. Space Weather. https://doi.org/10.1029/2020SW002641 — the index definition, to cite alongside the data
- NOAA SWPC: the G-scale of geomagnetic storms. https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/noaa-scales-explanation — G5 = Kp 9, aurora typically down to 40° magnetic latitude
- NOAA SWPC: the aurora tutorial. https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/content/aurora-tutorial — green 557.7 nm at 120–400 km, red only above 300 km, the Kp correlation
- Hayakawa, H., et al. (2024). The Solar and Geomagnetic Storms in May 2024: A Flash Data Report. Astrophysical Journal. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ad9335 — Dst −412 nT, sixth since 1957, 12 X flares, shock at 17:05 UT on 10 May
- Grandin, M., et al. (2024). The Gannon Storm: citizen science observations during the geomagnetic superstorm of 10 May 2024. Geoscience Communication 7. https://gc.copernicus.org/articles/7/297/2024/ — 696 reports from 30+ countries, aurora at 30–60° magnetic
- UAF Geophysical Institute: “Red aurora rare enough to be special” (2021). https://www.gi.alaska.edu/alaska-science-forum/red-aurora-rare-enough-be-special — red sits 200–300 miles up; phones see more than the eye
- SpaceWeatherLive: the Kp index guide. https://www.spaceweatherlive.com/en/help/the-kp-index.html — the approximate Kp–cities table: Bucharest at Kp 9
- Kanal D news, evening edition of 6 November 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lq7ROCuDP-w — red aurora over several counties on the night of 5 November
- LiveMint, 6 November 2023: red aurora over Europe. https://www.livemint.com/news/world/rare-northern-lights-explode-over-european-skies-netizens-awed-by-apocalyptic-video-bulgaria-11699260020992.html — eyewitness posts naming Romania
- Inshorts, 11 May 2024: aurora over Europe. https://inshorts.com/en/amp_news/northern-lights-seen-across-europe-after-geomagnetic-storm-hits-earth-pics-surface-1715401779457 — Romania among the pictured countries
- Timelapse collage from Dumbrăvița, Romania, 10–11 May 2024. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FHsgtnZqn0 — the aurora filmed at Dumbrăvița on Gannon night
- SpaceWeekly, 20 January 2026: the G4 storm. https://spaceweekly.com/?p=800203 — “vivid aurora” seen from Romania too
- Digi24, 20 January 2026: “The aurora was seen across much of Romania”. https://youtube.com/shorts/IdVagyGkFtU — the night of 19–20 January 2026
- STCE Brussels, 20 January 2026: Kp 9- in 21–24 UTC. https://stce.be/news/801/welcome.html — the evening's measurement, when Romania saw it
- OpenStreetMap: Romanian town coordinates (ODbL). https://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright — 101 towns, queried in July 2026