Iceland Aurora Season 2025

I’m just back from Iceland, covering the Aurora season for 2025, and I’m a little lost for words. We’re right in the thick of solar maximum and boy did mother nature put on a show. So many displays, all exceptionally dramatic and different.

I met up with my good friend Grant at Reykjavík Airport and picked up the rental car. Our first job was to spend considerable time studying the weather models. During times of solar maximum, you’re almost guaranteed to see aurora over Iceland every night (regardless of Kp), provided you have clear skies. Iceland weather can be a tricky and frustrating proposition. People can visit for two weeks and still see zero aurora. I was last in Iceland around the same time three years ago. We were exceptionally lucky with the weather that time. Could we do it again?

We had originally planned to make our way around the ring road clockwise. We’d even booked accommodation as availability can be extremely limited. We had a major problem: a huge front was moving over Iceland in the next few days, but in the same direction we were heading. If we had stuck to our plan, we’d basically be following a huge amount of rain and cloud for at least a week or more. But if we reversed our plan and made our way around the ring road anti-clockwise, we should have relatively clear skies for a week or more. And so we spent hours frantically cancelling all our accommodation and doing our best to rebook what we could find. It wasn’t easy and we could only find accommodation for the first few nights. Oh well, if we ended up doing a few all-nighters, then so be it.

But before we headed south, we noticed a very good cloud-free window over a few nights about an hour’s drive north of the capital, near Borgarnes. We found a quirky cabin at a place called “Rock ‘n Troll” and got everything charged up for our first night out. The clear sky forecast had us out in a rather remote spot to the west of Borgarnes. It was extremely flat, but featured wonderful large lakes. And because there wasn’t a breath of wind, the lakes were very calm. We found a great spot where a gravel road kissed the edge of a large lake and we decided this was going to be perfect for us. We arrived around 9pm and as we got out of the car, I looked up and saw a huge green beam overhead. It wasn’t nearly properly dark, yet we could see aurora happening already. It was the first time Grant had seen northern hemisphere aurora, so he was pretty ecstatic.

As it got properly dark, we were treated to a wonderful display of green. Perhaps the most vivid green of the entire trip. The intensity varied throughout the night, and we got some nice reflective shots over the lake. It was very mystical being out there. There were no lights, no people, no vehicles, no wind. Just the sound of wolves howling in the distance. We went home that night quite happy with what we’d seen. Little did we know that this night would turn out to be probably the faintest aurora show we’d have over the next couple of weeks.

The entire sky blazed a vivid green on our first night. A stunning display that, incredibly, proved to be our faintest.

Night 2 saw us heading further west out on Snæfellsnes Peninsula, following the clear skies. We initially headed over to the south coast of the peninsula as Grant was keen on photographing the black church at Búðir. It was twilight when we arrived and the skies were clear. Then within the space of about 30 minutes, thick cloud started rolling in and it became clear that this was not a good spot to remain in. So we rushed over the mountains to the northern coast hoping to find better skies. Unfortunately it was not much better on that side and we struggled with light pollution from nearby towns. As we were driving along the coast, trying to find anywhere slightly picturesque, the sky opened and a huge aurora display appeared. It was stressful. There’s nothing worse than seeing a huge aurora show and you’re in a car driving, without a spot away from light pollution and constant car lights and no real foreground. We had no choice but to pull over on the side of the road and do the best we could.

Just as we had set up, something happened that I’ll never forget. Without warning, the landscape all around suddenly lit up, like the sun had suddenly come up. We could see everything clearly. I looked up and the aurora had gone ballistic. A huge display of bright pink, yellow and green was dancing at incredible speed. We were gobsmacked. I’d seen a few videos online, but never thought I would see it for myself. It lasted for about five minutes. We were told by locals that it was extremely rare to see this – even for them.

Raw phone video of the most impressive aurora I’ve ever seen

Photos from Night 2. Not my best work, but despite the difficult conditions, I’m pleased with what I managed to capture.

We were meant to be heading south, but the weather forecast kept extending clear skies to the area we had been on the first night, so we decided to head back there for Night 3, but scope out a new location to photograph from. We followed a very rough road and ended up at a tiny church called Akrakirkja. Grant wanted to capture the church, but as I prefer only natural settings, I positioned myself just down the road in a tiny inlet next to the sea. It had wonderful reflections and nice rocks for a bit of foreground. Again, we had struck it lucky. There were virtually no clouds, zero wind and no light pollution. As soon as the sun went down, aurora was visible. It started as a huge streak of green and purple across the sky that intensified and grew bigger and bigger. Then, like someone flicking a switch, it went huge and started dancing. Before I knew it, the entire sky was ablaze in aurora – a huge amount of green and purple, with a solid line of dancing pink. I had to turn my camera settings way down as it was so bright. This show went on for hours, producing such wonderful displays and shapes.

At one point, I thought it would be nice to actually get myself in a few photos, so I ventured out from the small beach. By this time, the tide had gone out and I thought it was just sand and a few shells. The first few steps were fine, but then I ended up stepping into thick mud and before I knew it, I was ankle deep in it. As I tried to free myself, my boot came off, I lost my balance and ended up with my sock now in thick mud. It was quite funny looking back on it now and was all captured on camera.

Photos from Night 3 – a truly exceptional show

We went to a few nearby sites that evening for different perspectives including some more reflective ponds. The show just went on and on. We didn’t get into bed until 4am. Tired, but I think this was probably one of the most enjoyable nights of the entire trip.

A new location up the road from Night 3

In the morning, it became apparent that it was now time to pick up our plan to start the ring road, but in reverse, so we headed towards the south coast. It was a long day of driving, but we had no choice. We scoped out two locations. The first was a braided river and the second a small pond near the port of Landeyjahöfn. For night 4, we were treated to wonderful displays. Nice green and purple arcs with dancing beams. We called it a night at around 2am as the show, whilst still active, wasn’t as good as it was earlier.

River delta location for Night 4

Night 5 had us in the same area with a nice show, but not quite as spectacular as previous nights.

Photo from Night 5. Our “puddle” by the sea.

Thankfully, the weather models were bang on and we began to follow the clear skies as the front moved away. Our journey today took us over to Jökulsárlón. Just to the northeast, the road follows through a number of stunning small lakes. As there was no wind, we knew a picture of the mountains and aurora reflecting on the lake was going to be the perfect shot. We found one that was really stunning and set up cameras there. As it got dark, the aurora started and we had six nights of back-to-back aurora shows. The show really exploded at one point and gave us a myriad of colours, from vivid greens, yellows, purples, pinks and even blue. We then packed up and headed down to the shores of Jökulsárlón lake. This location was really stunning. There were chunks of ice all over and completely calm conditions. It made for perhaps the best foreground of any location we went to. Unfortunately we didn’t get a huge aurora display here, but it was nonetheless pretty, with nice colours. There was nothing better than just being alone at the lakeshore, listening to ice cracking and tumbling into the lake.

Photos from Night 6

Conditions for Night 7 were not ideal which was unfortunate as we had hoped to photograph at Vestrahorn. And after virtually no sleep for a week, we decided to have a rest night.

In the morning, it became apparent that the cloudy skies were going to stick around for some time in the south, but it was clear in the north, so we had another long driving day ahead. Night 8 turned out to be one of our longest nights out and one of the best shows we would have. It started off in a familiar location, one that I had been to before on a previous trip – Jökulsá á Brú Canyon. It’s got a really picturesque bridge over a canyon and river. A really nice spot. We got there nice and early and set up. To our surprise, the aurora appeared very early, at 8:19pm in fact. The sun had barely gone down and we were seeing aurora already! And then like other nights, it went really, really big. We had wonderful oval shapes, high beams with green, yellow, pink and purple. I even got a photo that resembled a person holding their arms out. Perhaps it was an angel looking down on us?

One of our best nights out – Night 8

We then headed east a bit and found a lake called Þórisvatn. It was a difficult location as we couldn’t quite see where we were going and quickly ended up in bog. But it didn’t really matter. The aurora went crazy…again. It started dancing rapidly. And then we got to see the corona. Wonderful curtains of green and maroon. This time, it just kept going and going. It danced for some time and we were simply amazed by what we saw.

But the evening wasn’t over. We then headed back down the road to Geitastaðakirkja which is a reconstruction of a turf church from the Age of Vikings. As I stated before, I don’t usually like manmade objects in my photos, but this was an exception (oh and lighthouses, haha). It was here that the show kicked off yet again. At one point, we had a huge homogenous arc of auroral rays of red, pink and yellow. It was dancing so quickly that every shot captured was completely different. I think it was about 4am that we decided to finally head home and try to get a few hours sleep. A night to remember.

After a big night and little sleep, with clouds forecast, we decided to skip Night 9 and rest.

Staying in the far north, we decided to go to one of my favorite spots in Iceland for night 10. A site where a fissure eruption has built all kinds of weird and wonderful structures. I thought they would make for some interesting foregrounds. As the sun went down, the aurora wasn’t visible. It was quite surprising. But then it suddenly sprung into life before progressing onto another huge display. What started as a huge arc burst into a crazy weird band structure of green and maroon ray curtains. At one point a very prominent central beam appeared and I managed to get it perfectly aligned with the rock formation. We managed to capture some really great shots here, but unfortunately the clouds came rolling in and cancelled the show just after midnight.

Weird and wonderful aurora on Night 10

With time running out, we had to make our way further west to get around the ring road. Unfortunately dense cloud cover was forecast for night 11, but we still decided to try our luck…and I’m glad we did. By pure chance, we found a gap in the sky just as the aurora burst into life and produced a wonderful show. We had to pull over on the side of the road, which wasn’t ideal. We managed to get about an hour’s worth before the clouds came in for good.

A small opening in the clouds, just at the right time on Night 11

With just a couple more days in Iceland, we had to take a bit of a gamble. The best weather remained in the north. But we had to get closer to Reykjavik…at least eventually. So we decided to spend the last days way in the north, then do a marathon drive all the way to the airport on the last day. We’re glad we did as we were treated to one last show, and one of the top three nights of the trip.

We started the night in the very northern part of Húnabyggð. It was extremely remote but we had sweeping views out over the ocean. The aurora appeared as soon as the sun set. Grant found a rock with a puddle of water in it that made for a nice foreground. The aurora display produced nice beams with a rainbow of colours. It was a very colourful shoot.

Our next location was up on a very remote point in the north called Kálfshamarsvík. It had wonderful basalt columns and a lighthouse. Lighthouses can be annoying when we’re after zero light pollution, but this one wasn’t working. Thankfully we had the place to ourselves. The show changed to a beautiful arc of green and red. Shortly after midnight, things went berserk. The sky exploded again into green, red and almost brown colours. It started dancing and we got to see the corona again. It was a really magical way to end almost two weeks solid of aurora chasing.

 

Overall, we were totally blown away with what we saw. We really couldn’t have asked for more. At times it was tough though. We’d often be out until 3-4am and then did a whole day of sightseeing before repeating it all over again. Sleep deprivation was extreme and we were glad to get back to normal sleep patterns upon our return.