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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 · Stockholm100 − mean cloud cover · higher is better

Clearest dark months here (outlined): Mar, Apr, Sep. Faint: no night with an hour of astronomical darkness — white nights, twilight only (May, Jun, Jul). Part-faint months are dark on some nights only: dark until 21 Apr; dark from 20 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 →

● Tonight at Stockholm — live →

Clearest dark skies in March

The aurora belt · Kp 3 or lessAll 70 spots

Top three: South Africa (Cape Point / Hermanus), South Australia coast (Kangaroo Is.), Victoria coast (Phillip Island). 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 · S57%8.9hKp 9+
  2. 02South Australia coast (Kangaroo Is.) Oceania · S48%8.9hKp 7+
  3. 03Victoria coast (Phillip Island) Oceania · S43%8.7hKp 6+
  4. 04Launceston Oceania · S43%8.6hKp 5+
  5. 05Yellowknife North America · N42%6.8hKp 1+
  6. 06Dawson City North America · N41%6.4hKp 1+
  7. 07North Dakota North America · N40%8.6hKp 5+
  8. 08Coldfoot / Bettles North America · N40%5.3hKp 0+
  9. 09Fairbanks North America · N39%6.2hKp 1+
  10. 10Northern Minnesota (Voyageurs) North America · N38%8.5hKp 5+
  11. 11Fort McMurray North America · N38%7.7hKp 3+
  12. 12Hobart Oceania · S37%8.5hKp 5+
  13. 13Whitehorse North America · N37%7.1hKp 3+
  14. 14Lake Tekapo (Aoraki Mackenzie) Oceania · S36%8.4hKp 5+
  15. 15Edmonton North America · N36%8.1hKp 4+
  16. 16Northern Maine (Acadia) North America · N35%8.7hKp 5+
  17. 17Christchurch Oceania · S35%8.4hKp 6+
  18. 18Patagonia (El Calafate) South America · S35%7.8hKp 9+
  19. 19Oslo Northern Europe · N35%7.3hKp 4+
  20. 20Anchorage North America · N35%7hKp 3+
  21. 21Oulu Northern Europe · N35%6.2hKp 3+
  22. 22Kiruna Northern Europe · N· dark until 29 Mar35%5.3hKp 2+
  23. 23Copenhagen Northern Europe · N34%7.9hKp 5+
  24. 24Stockholm Northern Europe · N34%7.4hKp 4+
  25. 25Denali North America · N34%6.7hKp 2+
  26. 26Dunedin / Otago Peninsula Oceania · S33%8.2hKp 5+
  27. 27Estonia (Tartu / coast) Northern Europe · N33%7.5hKp 5+
  28. 28Helsinki Northern Europe · N33%7.2hKp 4+
  29. 29Inari Northern Europe · N· dark until 26 Mar33%5.3hKp 1+
  30. 30Queenstown / Southland Oceania · S32%8.3hKp 5+
  31. 31Falkland Islands South Atlantic · S32%7.7hKp 9+
  32. 32Rovaniemi Northern Europe · N32%5.7hKp 2+
  33. 33Ivalo Northern Europe · N· dark until 27 Mar32%5.2hKp 2+
  34. 34Michigan Upper Peninsula (Keweenaw) North America · N31%8.6hKp 5+
  35. 35Bruny Island / Cockle Creek Oceania · S31%8.4hKp 4+
  36. 36Ilulissat Greenland · N· dark until 26 Mar31%5.1hKp 0+
  37. 37Nellim Northern Europe · N· dark until 27 Mar31%5.1hKp 2+
  38. 38Montana (Glacier NP) North America · N30%8.5hKp 5+
  39. 39Jasper North America · N30%8.2hKp 4+
  40. 40Aberdeenshire Northern Europe · N30%7.7hKp 5+
  41. 41Saariselkä Northern Europe · N· dark until 28 Mar30%5.2hKp 2+
  42. 42Iqaluit North America · N29%6.5hKp 1+
  43. 43Kirkenes Northern Europe · N· dark until 24 Mar29%5.2hKp 1+
  44. 44Svalbard (Longyearbyen) Northern Europe · N· dark until 3 Mar29%2.4hKp 0+
  45. 45Invercargill Oceania · S28%8.2hKp 5+
  46. 46Caithness (north Highlands) Northern Europe · N28%7.5hKp 5+
  47. 47Punta Arenas South America · S28%7.5hKp 9+
  48. 48Edinburgh Northern Europe · N27%7.8hKp 5+
  49. 49Orkney Northern Europe · N27%7.4hKp 5+
  50. 50Kangerlussuaq Greenland · N27%5.5hKp 0+
  51. 51Lofoten Islands Northern Europe · N· dark until 28 Mar27%5.3hKp 1+
  52. 52Svolvær Northern Europe · N· dark until 28 Mar27%5.3hKp 2+
  53. 53Murmansk / Kola Peninsula Northern Europe · N· dark until 26 Mar27%5.2hKp 2+
  54. 54Washington (North Cascades) North America · N26%8.5hKp 6+
  55. 55Nuuk Greenland · N26%6.4hKp 1+
  56. 56Churchill North America · N25%7.5hKp 1+
  57. 57Reykjavík Northern Europe · N25%6.4hKp 2+
  58. 58Ushuaia / Tierra del Fuego South America · S24%7.3hKp 8+
  59. 59Donegal Northern Europe · N23%8hKp 5+
  60. 60Senja Northern Europe · N· dark until 25 Mar23%5.2hKp 1+
  61. 61Alta Northern Europe · N· dark until 24 Mar23%5hKp 1+
  62. 62Utqiaġvik (Barrow) North America · N· dark until 20 Mar23%4.9hKp 0+
  63. 63Shetland Northern Europe · N22%7.2hKp 4+
  64. 64Faroe Islands (Tórshavn) Northern Europe · N22%6.9hKp 3+
  65. 65Stewart Island / Rakiura Oceania · S21%8.2hKp 4+
  66. 66Tromsø Northern Europe · N· dark until 24 Mar20%5.2hKp 1+
  67. 67Kilpisjärvi Northern Europe · N· dark until 26 Mar20%5.2hKp 1+
  68. 68Lyngen Northern Europe · N· dark until 25 Mar20%5.1hKp 1+
  69. 69Akureyri Northern Europe · N19%5.9hKp 1+
  70. 70Abisko Northern Europe · N· dark until 28 Mar19%5.2hKp 1+
  71. 71Skibotn Northern Europe · N· dark until 25 Mar18%5.2hKp 1+
  72. 72Iceland (countrywide) Northern Europe · N16%6.3hKp 2+
  73. 73South Georgia South Atlantic · S8%7.4hKp 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 →