In addition to the intensity of the Solar activity, location matters, especially nowadays. The auroras won't be super vivid near larger cities in Central Europ

In addition to the intensity of the Solar activity, location matters, especially nowadays. The auroras won't be super vivid near larger cities in Central Europe, with a lot of light around you. It's just not north enough and not dark enough. Up north, rural Lapland or so, it can get very vivid during a winter. Cameras tend to add their extra though. A surprising thing to me was how the aurora can sometimes be still and sometimes move so fast. It is a strange experience. One would expect something that covers such a large part of the visible sky-dome to move slowly, but instead it can swipe around quite quickly ("like a fox's tail").