Northern Lights Forecast for Nuuk

Northern Lights in Nuuk

Nuuk, the capital of Greenland, is a city of about 20,000 people at 64°N, on a peninsula near the mouth of the Nuuk Fjord. It lies about 265 km south of the Arctic Circle, so there is no polar night, but around the winter solstice the sun is up for only about four hours. On clear nights between September and early April the aurora is often visible from the center itself.

Quassussuaq and Ukkusissaq above the suburbs

The city’s lights reach well beyond the old center: the districts of Nuussuaq and Qinngorput carry them about 5 km north-east, to the shore of Malenebugten, south of the airport. Two mountains rise straight up from those suburbs. Quassussuaq (Lille Malene) can be climbed all year, on snowshoes or cross-country skis in winter, and also carries the town’s ski slope, which drops about 300 m to a bottom station near the airport terminal. Ukkusissaq (Store Malene), the higher of the two, is a hard summer hike. Guided aurora trips drive out of the city to darker ground.

The Nuuk Fjord stays open in winter

Nuup Kangerlua, the Nuuk Fjord, runs about 160 km inland to the ice sheet and does not freeze, so boat trips run all year, including evening trips away from the city’s light. Sermitsiaq, the 1,210 m mountain on its own island about 20 km north-east, is visible from almost everywhere in Nuuk.

The colonial harbor and Katuaq

The old colonial harbor is where Nuuk began. Hans Egede’s house, built in 1721 and the oldest house in Greenland, stands near the water, and the Greenland National Museum fills a 1936 warehouse on the harbor front. Its best-known exhibit is the Qilakitsoq mummies, three women and a baby from the 15th century.

Katuaq, the cultural center next to the Nuuk Center mall, opened in 1997. It holds the city’s cinema and a concert and theater hall, and the undulating larch screen around it was designed with the northern lights in mind.

Labrador Sea weather and Nuuk Airport

Nuuk’s climate is maritime. February nights average about −11 °C, against about −25 °C inland at Kangerlussuaq, but from December to March snow falls on 12 to 15 days a month. Nuuk Airport, about 4 km north-east of the center, has a 2,200 m runway that takes Air Greenland’s flights from Copenhagen. Air Greenland and Icelandair also fly in from Keflavík, and domestic flights connect Nuuk with towns up and down the coast, including Ilulissat.