What’s New in PhotoWeather: February 2026

A lot shipped in January. Social sign-in, smarter templates, new weather fields, aurora upgrades, and a new way to explore weather on the map. Here’s what’s new.

You can now sign in to PhotoWeather with your Google or Apple account. One tap, no password to remember.

This works for both new and existing accounts. If you already have a PhotoWeather account with the same email address, your Google or Apple sign-in will automatically link to it. All your rules, locations, and settings stay exactly as they are.

Email and password sign-in still works as before. Social sign-in is an additional option, not a replacement.

2. Starred Fields & Quick-Glance Opportunities (All Users)

You can now star fields in the Rule Builder to pin them to your opportunity cards. When an opportunity fires, the starred fields appear front and center so you can see the conditions that matter to you at a glance.

Common templates come with sensible default starred fields out of the box. Fog Hunter stars fog probability and visibility. Golden Hour stars golden hour potential and cloud coverage. You can customize the selection for any rule.

This means less tapping into opportunity details just to check the key numbers. At a glance, see what matters to you.

3. Smarter Templates (All Users)

Four popular templates received improvements to reduce noise and improve alert quality.

Winter Wonderland

Previously, Winter Wonderland triggered whenever it was clear with snow on the ground. That sent too many alerts for ordinary winter days. The template now requires either golden hour sunlight or clear blue hour conditions on top of the snow requirement. Fewer notifications, but the ones you get point to genuinely spectacular winter light.

Blue Hour

A new Blue Hour Quality advanced condition distinguishes between clear or pink-tinted blue hour skies and flat overcast ones. The template now uses this field to filter out the dull evenings and keep the ones worth shooting.

Cloud Drama Score & Golden Hour Potential (Pro)

The Cloudscapes and Golden Hour templates now incorporate solar radiation fields and directional variance detection. Cloud Drama Score better identifies skies with interesting texture and contrast. Golden Hour Potential better predicts when the light will actually deliver warm, dramatic color rather than just being technically “golden hour.”

4. New Advanced & Solar Radiation Fields (Pro)

New fields are available in the Rule Builder for Pro users who want fine-grained control over their conditions.

Advanced Fields

Blue Hour Quality — Distinguishes clear or pink-tinted blue hour skies from flat overcast ones
Light Breakthrough Potential — Likelihood of sun breaking through cloud cover, creating dramatic rays and spotlighting
Cloud Texture Score — How much visual texture and variation exists in the cloud layer
Overcast Flatness — Detects flat, featureless overcast skies (useful as a “not worth going out” filter)
Soft Light Index — Measures diffused, even lighting ideal for portraits and woodland photography

Solar Radiation Fields

Direct Radiation — Incoming solar radiation reaching the surface directly, useful for predicting harsh vs. soft light
Diffuse Radiation — Scattered sunlight from the atmosphere, indicates soft ambient illumination

These fields can be combined with existing conditions to build highly specific rules. For example, pairing Light Breakthrough Potential with high cloud coverage targets those dramatic “god ray” moments.

5. Notification Improvements (All Users)

The notification settings page has been redesigned with clearer controls and more sensible defaults.

Two new features give you more control over what notifications you receive:

Mute individual locations — Keep a location on your dashboard and map but stop it from generating notifications. Useful for spots you want to monitor visually without getting pinged.
Per-rule notification settings — Customize notification timing and delivery for each rule individually. Want early alerts for aurora but standard timing for everything else? Now you can.

6. Expanded Event Intelligence (All Users)

Event Intelligence now provides more detailed opportunity analysis across more rule types. When an opportunity fires, the evidence section explains in more detail why conditions matched and what factors are driving the confidence score. This applies to templates that previously had minimal or no Event Intelligence coverage.

7. Aurora Upgrades (Pro)

Aurora opportunities now include a map and a new travel radius option for alerts.

Opportunity Map

When an aurora opportunity fires, you’ll see a map highlighting nearby locations with clear skies. This is always shown on aurora opportunities, so you can see at a glance where the best viewing conditions are.

Travel Radius for Alerts

The aurora quality field in the Rule Builder now includes an optional travel radius setting — 25 km, 50 km, or 100 km. By default, the rule only alerts you based on conditions at your location. But if you set a travel radius, the rule will also trigger when clear-sky spots exist within that distance, even if your location is overcast. This means you won’t miss an aurora just because there’s cloud cover overhead when clear skies are a short drive away.

8. Next-Day Weather Map (All Users)

There’s a new weather map view on your locations that shows next-day forecast conditions at a glance. Select a field and see it visualized across your location and the surrounding area.

This works with advanced fields like Fog Probability, Aurora Quality, and Fiery Red Sky Potential — not just basic temperature and wind. It also works with directional weather intelligence data, so you can see things like cloud breakdown (low/mid/high) not only at your location but at surrounding sample points too.

The desktop chart view is also larger now, making it easier to read weather data across all views.

9. PhotoWeather for Android — Now on Google Play

PhotoWeather for Android is now live on Google Play. The Android app includes the same core features as iOS: instant push notifications, full rule management, opportunity tracking, and location management — all with native Android performance.

Get it on Google Play →

If you’re an existing user, just sign in with your PhotoWeather account and everything syncs automatically.

That’s the February update. Social sign-in makes getting started faster, starred fields make opportunities more useful at a glance, and the aurora map opens up new possibilities for northern lights chasers.

Questions or feedback? Reach out at support@photoweather.app.

Clear skies, Pontus