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ERA5 climatology · 2015–2024
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The best month.

Pick a month and every watch point is ranked by its real monthly cloud cover — 2015–2024 reanalysis means, lower is better — with the spots that have no true darkness that month set apart. Or pick a spot for its twelve-month chart.

Clear sky by month · Edinburgh100 − mean cloud cover · higher is better

Clearest dark months here (outlined): Apr, Aug, Sep. Faint: no night with an hour of astronomical darkness — white nights, twilight only (Jun, Jul). Part-faint months are dark on some nights only: dark until 2 May; dark from 9 Aug. ERA5 reanalysis, 2015–2024 monthly mean. Climatology, not a forecast — a regional ~25 km grid; local microclimates are not captured. Darkness & moon calendar → Best month, all spots →

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Clearest dark skies in October

The aurora belt · Kp 3 or lessAll 70 spots

Top three: South Africa (Cape Point / Hermanus), South Australia coast (Kangaroo Is.), North Dakota. 73 watch points with at least one night of an hour's astronomical darkness this month, ranked by clear sky (100 − mean cloud cover); dark hours are the mean over the month's dark nights, and a part-dark month says when its darkness starts or ends. Cloud is only one of the three conditions — a clear Kp 9 spot is almost never lit; the threshold shown is each spot's own.

  1. 01South Africa (Cape Point / Hermanus) Africa · S53%8.1hKp 9+
  2. 02South Australia coast (Kangaroo Is.) Oceania · S46%8hKp 7+
  3. 03North Dakota North America · N43%9.7hKp 5+
  4. 04Launceston Oceania · S41%7.4hKp 5+
  5. 05Victoria coast (Phillip Island) Oceania · S40%7.7hKp 6+
  6. 06Christchurch Oceania · S40%7.2hKp 6+
  7. 07Edmonton North America · N39%9.6hKp 4+
  8. 08Patagonia (El Calafate) South America · S39%6.2hKp 9+
  9. 09Lake Tekapo (Aoraki Mackenzie) Oceania · S38%7.2hKp 5+
  10. 10Northern Maine (Acadia) North America · N37%9.8hKp 5+
  11. 11Hobart Oceania · S37%7.3hKp 5+
  12. 12Fort McMurray North America · N35%9.4hKp 3+
  13. 13Falkland Islands South Atlantic · S35%5.9hKp 9+
  14. 14Montana (Glacier NP) North America · N34%9.7hKp 5+
  15. 15Nuuk Greenland · N34%8.9hKp 1+
  16. 16Ilulissat Greenland · N33%8.3hKp 0+
  17. 17Dunedin / Otago Peninsula Oceania · S33%6.9hKp 5+
  18. 18Michigan Upper Peninsula (Keweenaw) North America · N32%9.8hKp 5+
  19. 19Northern Minnesota (Voyageurs) North America · N32%9.7hKp 5+
  20. 20Bruny Island / Cockle Creek Oceania · S32%7.2hKp 4+
  21. 21Washington (North Cascades) North America · N31%9.7hKp 6+
  22. 22Stockholm Northern Europe · N31%9.3hKp 4+
  23. 23Oslo Northern Europe · N30%9.3hKp 4+
  24. 24Fairbanks North America · N30%8.9hKp 1+
  25. 25Copenhagen Northern Europe · N29%9.5hKp 5+
  26. 26Aberdeenshire Northern Europe · N29%9.4hKp 5+
  27. 27Estonia (Tartu / coast) Northern Europe · N29%9.3hKp 5+
  28. 28Kangerlussuaq Greenland · N29%8.6hKp 0+
  29. 29Lofoten Islands Northern Europe · N29%8.4hKp 1+
  30. 30Jasper North America · N28%9.6hKp 4+
  31. 31Edinburgh Northern Europe · N28%9.5hKp 5+
  32. 32Helsinki Northern Europe · N28%9.2hKp 4+
  33. 33Dawson City North America · N28%8.9hKp 1+
  34. 34Coldfoot / Bettles North America · N28%8.6hKp 0+
  35. 35Svolvær Northern Europe · N28%8.4hKp 2+
  36. 36Invercargill Oceania · S28%6.8hKp 5+
  37. 37Queenstown / Southland Oceania · S27%7hKp 5+
  38. 38Punta Arenas South America · S27%5.6hKp 9+
  39. 39Anchorage North America · N26%9.2hKp 3+
  40. 40Caithness (north Highlands) Northern Europe · N25%9.4hKp 5+
  41. 41Orkney Northern Europe · N25%9.3hKp 5+
  42. 42Whitehorse North America · N24%9.2hKp 3+
  43. 43Shetland Northern Europe · N24%9.2hKp 4+
  44. 44Denali North America · N24%9hKp 2+
  45. 45Oulu Northern Europe · N24%8.8hKp 3+
  46. 46Reykjavík Northern Europe · N23%8.9hKp 2+
  47. 47Kiruna Northern Europe · N23%8.5hKp 2+
  48. 48Senja Northern Europe · N23%8.3hKp 1+
  49. 49Kirkenes Northern Europe · N23%8.2hKp 1+
  50. 50Ushuaia / Tierra del Fuego South America · S23%5.2hKp 8+
  51. 51Donegal Northern Europe · N22%9.5hKp 5+
  52. 52Yellowknife North America · N22%9.1hKp 1+
  53. 53Inari Northern Europe · N22%8.3hKp 1+
  54. 54Faroe Islands (Tórshavn) Northern Europe · N21%9.1hKp 3+
  55. 55Rovaniemi Northern Europe · N21%8.7hKp 2+
  56. 56Ivalo Northern Europe · N21%8.4hKp 2+
  57. 57Stewart Island / Rakiura Oceania · S21%6.7hKp 4+
  58. 58Nellim Northern Europe · N20%8.3hKp 2+
  59. 59Tromsø Northern Europe · N20%8.2hKp 1+
  60. 60Churchill North America · N19%9.3hKp 1+
  61. 61Alta Northern Europe · N19%8.1hKp 1+
  62. 62Iqaluit North America · N18%9hKp 1+
  63. 63Saariselkä Northern Europe · N18%8.4hKp 2+
  64. 64Murmansk / Kola Peninsula Northern Europe · N18%8.3hKp 2+
  65. 65Lyngen Northern Europe · N18%8.2hKp 1+
  66. 66Akureyri Northern Europe · N15%8.8hKp 1+
  67. 67Svalbard (Longyearbyen) Northern Europe · N· dark from 9 Oct14%6.4hKp 0+
  68. 68Abisko Northern Europe · N13%8.4hKp 1+
  69. 69Skibotn Northern Europe · N13%8.3hKp 1+
  70. 70Utqiaġvik (Barrow) North America · N13%7.9hKp 0+
  71. 71Iceland (countrywide) Northern Europe · N12%8.9hKp 2+
  72. 72Kilpisjärvi Northern Europe · N10%8.3hKp 1+
  73. 73South Georgia South Atlantic · S9%5.3hKp 8+
clear = 100 − mean cloud cover · dark = mean hours of astronomical dark · glow = the spot's Kp for a glow

Cloud: Open-Meteo Historical Weather API (ERA5 reanalysis), cloud_cover_mean (daily), averaged by calendar month, 2015–2024. Climatology, not a forecast — a regional ~25 km grid; local microclimates (a valley's "blue hole") are not captured. Darkness: astronomical (sun below −18°) computed for the 15th of the month at each spot. Night-by-night darkness & moon → Season sheet (PDF) → Plan the trip →