Most people don't associate November with a peak season for anything, let alone wildlife. In northern Norway, November is when everything arrives at once, and the combination of what's happening in the water and sky makes it the most concentrated wildlife month of the year.

The Herring Migration

Norwegian spring-spawning herring is one of the largest fish stocks in the world, numbering in the billions. Each autumn, massive schools migrate from their summer feeding grounds in the open Norwegian Sea toward the sheltered fjords of northern Norway, where they overwinter in dense concentrations. This migration typically reaches the northern fjords in October and November. The exact timing shifts year to year, but November is historically the most reliable month for the herring to be present in significant numbers.

The Orcas Follow

Orca pods that specialize in herring hunting follow the fish in from the open ocean. These are not small groups. In a good November, several hundred orcas may be present in a relatively small area of fjord water, feeding actively using carousel feeding behavior. The concentration of orcas in accessible water is essentially unmatched anywhere in the world during this period.

Humpback Whales Join In

Humpback whales that have spent the summer feeding in high Arctic waters migrate south along the Norwegian coast in autumn. Many follow the herring into the same fjords as the orcas. In a good November, you may find both species active in the same water on the same day. Humpbacks tend to feed at the edges of orca activity, picking up herring that escape the carousel.

The Northern Lights

November in northern Norway means near-total darkness. Above Tromso, sunrise in November comes around 9:30am and sets before 2:30pm. That leaves 17-18 hours of darkness each night. For northern lights viewing, this is optimal. Solar conditions in the current phase of the solar cycle have been active, which means aurora activity has been stronger and more frequent than in previous years. On a clear night in November above the Arctic Circle, the combination of long darkness and geomagnetic activity makes aurora sightings likely across a multi-night stay.

The Trade-off

November in northern Norway is genuinely cold and the weather is unpredictable. Temperatures are typically between -5 and 5 degrees Celsius, with wind chill pushing the perceived temperature lower. The darkness takes adjustment. Fog and cloud cover can ground boats and block the aurora for days at a stretch. This is not a comfortable destination in the resort sense.

What November offers instead is something different from comfort: the intersection of extraordinary wildlife concentrations with the kind of landscape and conditions that make you feel genuinely far from ordinary life. People who go once tend to go back, not despite the difficulty but partly because of it. Arriving somewhere in the dark and cold and being in the water with hundreds of orcas an hour later is a particular kind of experience that nothing warmer and easier replicates.