How to see the Northern Lights from Vík in south Iceland?

A traveller asked in an aurora Facebook group how she could see the Northern Lights from Vík in south Iceland.

The admin answered: "Just look up and if you see stars, wait." 

Now, that’s not a good answer. In fact it’s bad and very unhelpful.

The thing about Vík is that behind the small picturesque town, a large mountain and a glacier towards north blocks a large portion of the northern half of the sky.

When activity is low or even moderate, it simply is not enough to tell people to just look up and wait. Odds are that the aurora will mostly be blocked from view by the tall mountains. Within the town, light pollution of course also affects visibility.

From Vík, you only have an unobstructed view towards south, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. When activity intensifies and a strong auroral substorm occurs, the Northern Lights should be visible directly overhead from Vík or even towards south. 

But that’s not always the case.

The photographic evidence

Here's an example. These lovely northern lights could not be seen from Vík due to the mountains closest to the town. They were, however, easily visible just 10 minutes drive towards west, on the road towards Reynisfjara black sand beach.

And here's another example, taken from Dyrhólaey, near Reynisfjara, the black sand beach. Not seen very well from Vík itself but easily visible when no topography obstructed the view.

So how to successfully see aurora when staying in Vík? 

If activity is low or moderate, check the satellite view of the cloud cover, be mobile and drive towards either east or west. East takes you to Mýrdalssandur glacial outwash plain but west to Reynisfjara black sand beach.

Which way to go depends on wind direction. If the wind comes from northeast, head west. If the wind is from northwest or west, head east.

The tall glacier acts like a natural barrier of clouds, sometimes even breaking them up. So make sure you are on the leeward side.

Then, keep an eye on the real time space weather data on Iceland at Night.