About Us

Aurora Borealis Notifications was founded by us, Amy Stratman and Kristie Stariha. In the winter of 2009-2010, we started a phone tree telling our friends that the aurora was out. This was not something new, aurora phone trees have been around Alaska for years. Little did we know we are not alone in our enthusiasm, and the list grew, so we went to onto Facebook to notify more people. We were the first aurora group and page on Facebook and we have inspired many other groups, with some leaving our group to start their own.

This is a network for Alaska residents and visitors to get real time notifications when the aurora borealis is visible in the sky. We also help spread the word from other areas around the world. In fact, group members from Minnesota and Alberta Canada were becoming more plentiful than Alaskans in the Facebook group, so there are now other huge Facebook groups created directly from ours. This service is powered by the human eye, and not by a computer or app. Although we love the science of space weather, we like to document and report the aurora season in an unscientific manner. This simply means we like to say “the lights are out!”, then enjoy the view. Scientists and data collectors sometimes use the reports for their purpose. Amazing!!

We watch the sky nightly from the first week of August through the end of April. Auroras may still be seen in parts of Alaska where it gets dark into May, but the time frame of dark sky is so small, if you want to see the aurora, you can just wait for the darkest time of night during this time frame. Auroras are seen in lower latitudes year round (in the northern states and southern provinces of Canada), if the aurora storm is strong enough.

For one on one help with your aurora adventure, please contact me via Buy Me a Coffee. You can also book tours through this website to our partners tour companies…make sure you mention Amy or ABN.

*A special thank you to our wonderful social media admins Kristina, Kathy, Niki, Gary, Rich, Lindsay, Daniel, Robert, Misty, Nina, Shannon, Jennifer, Cadence, Thomas, Kris, Jason, and all the former admins too, Scott, Brittney, Monica, Samantha, Christian, Roger (Rest in Peace), Kevin, Marshall, Tony.

Thanks for visiting!

Amy Stratman