Germany
Conditions are below the threshold for this location. Kp needs to reach about 7.2 before aurora clears the horizon here — that is 6.9 higher than right now.
Cologne sits at 50.9° geographic, but the oval is centred on the magnetic pole.
Too far from the pole for the oval to reach your zenith, at any Kp.
Heavy cloud will hide most of the sky. Worth checking a nearby clear spot.
Sun rises again at 06:21. Aurora peaks near magnetic midnight.
The auroral oval is a ring centred on Earth's magnetic pole, not the geographic one. That is why Cologne — at 50.9° geographic latitude — behaves like a 51.7° location as far as aurora is concerned. A higher Kp pushes the ring further from the pole, and the number you need is set entirely by that geomagnetic figure.
From here, aurora starts to clear the northern horizon at around Kp 7.2. It never stands directly overhead from this latitude — even in the strongest storms it stays low toward the north. Find a spot with an unobstructed view north and away from street lighting. Give your eyes twenty minutes to adjust, and remember that a camera picks up colour long before the naked eye does.
We'll email you when the Kp index is forecast to pass 7.2 — the threshold for Cologne, Germany. Nothing else.
Kp index and forecast from NOAA SWPC. Cloud cover and sun times from Open-Meteo. Geomagnetic latitude uses the IGRF-14 dipole for epoch 2025.