AuroraWatch UK Aurora Alerts 4+

I have had this app for almost a year now and unfortunately hadn’t had a chance to use it fully before until the recent G5 storm on Friday May 10th.

Like most of the UK, I was out taking photos of the aurora and this app was invaluable during this time. I could easily check the levels of the geomagnetic storm on the main page, and the auroras location on the map, making it easy to decide when to move on to an area higher North. While I only made it to two spots before the sun began to rise again, I doubt I would have managed the second spot without this app helping me follow the storm. 10/10, would (and will) aurora hunt with this app again

Thank you for taking the time to leave your kind review.

Whilst this app does have its virtues, it’s biggest problem is that it informs you of aurora activity when it is too late. Telling me what is currently occurring isn’t good enough to go to a location to see it because by the time you you get there, the forecast has changed and aurora completed. There’s no forecast at play, which makes it a bit useless. It’s fun if you wish to see a livecam from the Shetland’s, but that’s it. The colour coding is also inaccurate. I’ve seen many red alerts on there, and it notifies you that the red alert means that the aurora is visible everywhere in the U.K., and this simply never true. It is never visible all over the U.K.– all one can really say is that it is visible in parts of Scotland & northern England. I’ve been attempting to chase the aurora for the last 6-7 years, but this app hasn’t really helped me in that regard. I guess this is just an app for someone purely interested in geomagnetic activity.

Thank you for taking the time to leave your review.

I am sorry that the entire purpose of the app, providing real time alerts, is not for you.

You may find reading the FAQs from Lancaster University about the reasons for real time alerts here https://aurorawatch.lancs.ac.uk/faq/advance-alerts/ useful. Also https://aurorawatch.lancs.ac.uk/faq/when-aurora-visible/ may be useful too.

The Aurora is never going to visible from everywhere, *but*, the red alert is suggestive of the possibility of being able to see the Aurora across the entire UK, as in the geomagnetic activity is such that it is likely to stretch that far. In that respect the colours are indeed accurate, but sadly don't meet with your wants.

I would strongly suggest taking a look at https://aurorawatch.lancs.ac.uk/ and poking around the site to get more information.

Just what I needed when I first got the app. It’s still a great app but a couple of years later I find that notifications have become sporadic and I feel that either there’s something I’m not doing right in the setup or that there’s something that could benefit from being tweaked by the developer? I really appreciate all the time and effort the developer put into it and I love the app and would continue to love it if it never evolved. I guess I’m trying to leave a very positive review whilst at the same time offering constructive feedback.

Thank you for taking the time to leave your kind review.
Please open the app, head to Settings, change your alert level to a different level and back again. That should fix any alert issue.
If you still have issues, please send an email via the Settings screen in the app, or support@aurorawatchapp.uk and mention this review.