content: I just got back from going to see them. March or October are the strongest months due to the equinox and angle of the sun. You can see them any time it is dark, those just happen to beat the strongest.  The artic has a few weeks of total sun or total darkness, so make sure you don’t go in the middle of the Midnight Sun. Also, the aurora BELT is a band a bit above the artic. As sun activity gets stronger,, the belt widens north and southward and more intense Auroras happen in the middle. As it weakens, less intense Auroras and the range to see them shrinks. It goes on a scale of 1-9 I think. Search “aurora forecast xxxxx” with the name of the city you are going to. I like this website http://www.gi.alaska.edu/AuroraForecast    . On a middle to low chance of 3, that’s like 25% chance in the books to see auroras. I happened to see them both nights when it was not cloudy on a 5 day trip to Tromsø. Note: maybe I was lucky, but unfortunately 3 nights it was cloudy af. No chance. Go for the destination- I had lots of fun during the day and if I didn’t see any, of course I would be disappointed but I wouldn’t have regretted it. If I went to the middle of fuckall on flat uninspiring nothingness, with nothing to do for 4 days on cloudy nights or rain, I would have been pissed. So make sure You can stay entertained. Lastly, get a guide. It’s touristy and overpriced but seriously. Guides know the land and using weather forecasting they know areas which are dark, safe to pull off at, and they can avoid clouds. I got lucky on night #3 to see them on the outskirts of a city. #4 we were meant to go Aurora hunting but it it was so cloudy the offered to postpone or refund. Night #5 we got treated to a ~ 6 hour show that was amazing, although I’m sure it was meh for anyone who has seen them often.  So tips are: go around the equinox, go to a place in the middle of the band, stay long enough to negate cloud issues, make sure the destination is interesting enough that you can enjoy your trip if you don’t see anything, and get a guide if you can. Tromsø was expensive because Norway, but tons of fun in the small city and due to the gulf coast, temps in October were 35-40*F. Compare that to north of Fairbanks, Murmansk or north Canada.