Fjordlight reads the weather model hour by hour and tells you where and when to expect mist, golden light, dramatic skies, starry nights or aurora – for the places you actually photograph.
Calculated in your browser with the same sun formulas the app uses. In the app, the light is combined with cloud layers, humidity and wind for every place you save.
Search for a place, long-press the map, or pick a well-known photo spot. Fjordlight also suggests spots near the places you already have.
Fjordlight works through cloud layers, humidity, wind, sun, moon and aurora activity for each place, hour by hour and up to nine days ahead.
An alert when the score passes the threshold you chose, with the time, the reasons and how sure it is. Turn it on with one tap when you add a place.
A normal forecast tells you whether it will be sunny. Fjordlight looks at what decides the picture: which cloud layers sit where, whether the air is saturated, and where the sun is.
For still mornings over water and valleys.
High clouds that catch the light, with no low ceiling in the way.
Showers, clearing skies and light breaking through.
Clear, dark skies without the moon in the way.
The chance the northern lights are visible where you stand.
Discover shows the best light for each of the next seven days across all your places, so you can see at once which day is worth keeping free. Tap a day to open it in the planner.
New on Android. Coming to iPhone and iPad in the next update.Every score comes with the reasons behind it and how sure it is. You see it's a 90 because high clouds are ready to light up and the horizon towards the sun is open – and that confidence drops the further ahead you look.
See where the auroral oval is now and through the night, what Kp you need where you are, and when it is dark enough with little cloud. Alerts arrive when the chance is actually good.
Pick a day and a time and see where the sun, the moon and the Milky Way stand from your spot, drawn as lines right on the map. So you know when the moon clears the mountain, or where the Milky Way hangs over the fjord.
See when it gets fully dark, how much of the moon is lit and where the Milky Way stands. Pick your lens and camera, and the planner tells you the longest exposure before the stars start to trail, by the NPF and 500 rules.
New on Android. Coming to iPhone and iPad in the next update.
On iPad, Android tablets and foldables you get two columns, so the map, timeline and details sit side by side. Works in portrait and landscape.
Two more subjects: reflections, when the water lies mirror-still, and frost after cold, clear nights. Plan a trip from a window and get a reminder before the light arrives, plus a message if the forecast turns. A daily photo brief gathers the best opportunities in one notification.
High and low tide for the Norwegian coast, a check on whether it's sensible to fly a drone, and the chance of a rainbow with the direction to look. Keep a dated log for every spot: parking, the best angle, what worked.
The free version gives you forecasts for three places. Pro unlocks every place, every alert and the full planner.
Google Play and the App Store show the price in your own currency. A subscription belongs to the store you bought it in.
| Free | Pro | |
|---|---|---|
| Mist, golden light, drama, starry skies and aurora | Yes | Yes |
| Saved places | 3 | Unlimited |
| Alerts for places | 1 place | All places |
| Planner | 3 days | 9 days |
| Tide, drone and rainbow checks | Yes | Yes |
| Aurora alerts | – | Yes |
| Reflections and frost | – | Yes |
| Sun, moon and Milky Way on the map | – | Yes |
| Sun and moon direction hour by hour | – | Yes |
| Planned trips and daily photo brief | – | Yes |
| Backup of places and logs | – | Yes |
| Home-screen widget | – | Yes |
The app is free with three saved places, a three-day planner and alerts for one place. Pro unlocks the rest, as a yearly or monthly subscription. On Android you can try Pro free for 14 days.
Yes. Fjordlight is on the App Store for iPhone and iPad (iOS 17 or newer) and on Google Play for Android phones, tablets and foldables. The forecasts are the same on both.
Yes, anywhere in the world. The weather data from the Norwegian Meteorological Institute covers the whole globe, and the app suggests popular photo spots in more than twenty countries, from Lofoten to the Dolomites, Yosemite and Patagonia. The forecast is most detailed in the Nordic countries, the aurora forecast covers the north, and tides cover the Norwegian coast.
As good as the weather model behind it, and honest about the rest. Every score has a confidence that drops the further ahead you look. Mist is the hardest to forecast, so it never gets high confidence.
No. Your places are stored only on your phone, and the app sends nothing but coordinates to the weather services. Pro is bought and managed in Google Play or the App Store.
Yes. Export a backup in Settings (Pro) and import it on the other phone. The file is the same on Android and iPhone, with your places and logs.
Within the same store, yes: restore the purchase in the app. Google Play and the App Store don't share subscriptions, so moving between Android and iPhone means subscribing again in the other store.
Because high clouds often make the best sunsets. What ruins them is low cloud on the horizon where the sun sets, and that is exactly what the app looks for.
In the Nordic countries it does not get dark enough from May to July. The app says it is not dark enough for stars, rather than showing a score that means nothing.
Tap the place on the map and choose Plan (Pro). Pick a day and drag the timeline, and the map draws the direction of the sun, moon and Milky Way from the place. That is how you find, say, the evening the full moon rises behind Kirkjufell.
Yes. On Android the app checks your places about every three hours and aurora about every half hour; some phones stop background work to save battery, so exempt Fjordlight from battery optimisation if alerts don't arrive. On iPhone, iOS decides when the check runs, so keep Background App Refresh on for Fjordlight.
On Android: in Google Play, tap your profile picture, choose Payments & subscriptions, then Subscriptions. On iPhone and iPad: open Settings, tap your name, then Subscriptions. You keep Pro until the end of the period you paid for.
Read the full user guide, with examples from photo spots around the world
Free to download for iPhone, iPad and Android. No account, and your places stay on your phone.
Low, moderate or high, based on how far ahead the forecast is and how detailed the data is. Mist is never more than moderate, because it is so local.
Weather from the Norwegian Meteorological Institute, space weather from NOAA, tides and place names from the Norwegian Mapping Authority. Sun, moon and Milky Way are calculated on the phone.
No account and no tracking. Places are stored on the phone, and only coordinates are sent to the weather services.
Data: MET Norway (CC BY 4.0) NOAA SWPC Kartverket © OpenStreetMap
Fjordlight is made by the photographer behind dslr.no, who sells prints from Norway, Iceland and the Faroe Islands. It is built to find the mornings and evenings worth heading out for.
See the photos at dslr.no Follow @fjordlight.app on Instagram