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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 · Inari100 − mean cloud cover · higher is better

Clearest dark months here (outlined): Mar, Sep, Oct. Faint: no night with an hour of astronomical darkness — midnight sun (Jun, Jul); white nights, twilight only (Apr, May, Aug). Part-faint months are dark on some nights only: dark until 26 Mar; dark from 15 Sep. 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 Inari — live →

Clearest dark skies in January

The aurora belt · Kp 3 or lessAll 70 spots

Top three: Coldfoot / Bettles, Fairbanks, Denali. 37 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. 01Coldfoot / Bettles North America · N42%12.3hKp 0+
  2. 02Fairbanks North America · N41%12.2hKp 1+
  3. 03Denali North America · N37%12.1hKp 2+
  4. 04Yellowknife North America · N32%12hKp 1+
  5. 05Fort McMurray North America · N31%11.8hKp 3+
  6. 06Dawson City North America · N29%12.1hKp 1+
  7. 07Ilulissat Greenland · N27%12.4hKp 0+
  8. 08Whitehorse North America · N25%12hKp 3+
  9. 09Svalbard (Longyearbyen) Northern Europe · N24%13.4hKp 0+
  10. 10Senja Northern Europe · N24%12.4hKp 1+
  11. 11Iqaluit North America · N24%12.1hKp 1+
  12. 12Lofoten Islands Northern Europe · N23%12.4hKp 1+
  13. 13Svolvær Northern Europe · N23%12.4hKp 2+
  14. 14Reykjavík Northern Europe · N23%12.1hKp 2+
  15. 15Anchorage North America · N23%12hKp 3+
  16. 16Faroe Islands (Tórshavn) Northern Europe · N22%12hKp 3+
  17. 17Utqiaġvik (Barrow) North America · N21%12.6hKp 0+
  18. 18Tromsø Northern Europe · N20%12.5hKp 1+
  19. 19Lyngen Northern Europe · N20%12.5hKp 1+
  20. 20Kangerlussuaq Greenland · N20%12.3hKp 0+
  21. 21Kiruna Northern Europe · N20%12.3hKp 2+
  22. 22Nuuk Greenland · N20%12.1hKp 1+
  23. 23Kirkenes Northern Europe · N19%12.5hKp 1+
  24. 24Inari Northern Europe · N19%12.4hKp 1+
  25. 25Churchill North America · N19%11.9hKp 1+
  26. 26Ivalo Northern Europe · N18%12.4hKp 2+
  27. 27Nellim Northern Europe · N18%12.4hKp 2+
  28. 28Murmansk / Kola Peninsula Northern Europe · N18%12.4hKp 2+
  29. 29Alta Northern Europe · N17%12.5hKp 1+
  30. 30Skibotn Northern Europe · N17%12.5hKp 1+
  31. 31Oulu Northern Europe · N17%12.2hKp 3+
  32. 32Saariselkä Northern Europe · N15%12.4hKp 2+
  33. 33Rovaniemi Northern Europe · N15%12.3hKp 2+
  34. 34Akureyri Northern Europe · N15%12.2hKp 1+
  35. 35Iceland (countrywide) Northern Europe · N15%12.1hKp 2+
  36. 36Abisko Northern Europe · N12%12.4hKp 1+
  37. 37Kilpisjärvi Northern Europe · N9%12.4hKp 1+
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 →