Skip to content
ERA5 climatology · 2015–2024
When to go

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 · Nellim100 − 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 27 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 Nellim — live →

Clearest dark skies in November

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 · N31%11.7hKp 0+
  2. 02Fairbanks North America · N30%11.6hKp 1+
  3. 03Denali North America · N30%11.6hKp 2+
  4. 04Fort McMurray North America · N30%11.4hKp 3+
  5. 05Ilulissat Greenland · N29%11.8hKp 0+
  6. 06Nuuk Greenland · N27%11.6hKp 1+
  7. 07Anchorage North America · N27%11.5hKp 3+
  8. 08Lofoten Islands Northern Europe · N25%11.7hKp 1+
  9. 09Reykjavík Northern Europe · N25%11.6hKp 2+
  10. 10Svolvær Northern Europe · N24%11.7hKp 2+
  11. 11Kangerlussuaq Greenland · N23%11.7hKp 0+
  12. 12Dawson City North America · N22%11.6hKp 1+
  13. 13Yellowknife North America · N22%11.5hKp 1+
  14. 14Senja Northern Europe · N21%11.8hKp 1+
  15. 15Kiruna Northern Europe · N21%11.7hKp 2+
  16. 16Faroe Islands (Tórshavn) Northern Europe · N21%11.5hKp 3+
  17. 17Whitehorse North America · N19%11.5hKp 3+
  18. 18Iqaluit North America · N18%11.6hKp 1+
  19. 19Svalbard (Longyearbyen) Northern Europe · N17%12.1hKp 0+
  20. 20Alta Northern Europe · N16%11.8hKp 1+
  21. 21Kirkenes Northern Europe · N16%11.8hKp 1+
  22. 22Oulu Northern Europe · N15%11.6hKp 3+
  23. 23Tromsø Northern Europe · N14%11.8hKp 1+
  24. 24Inari Northern Europe · N14%11.7hKp 1+
  25. 25Ivalo Northern Europe · N14%11.7hKp 2+
  26. 26Nellim Northern Europe · N14%11.7hKp 2+
  27. 27Akureyri Northern Europe · N14%11.6hKp 1+
  28. 28Iceland (countrywide) Northern Europe · N14%11.6hKp 2+
  29. 29Lyngen Northern Europe · N13%11.8hKp 1+
  30. 30Rovaniemi Northern Europe · N13%11.7hKp 2+
  31. 31Churchill North America · N13%11.4hKp 1+
  32. 32Murmansk / Kola Peninsula Northern Europe · N12%11.8hKp 2+
  33. 33Saariselkä Northern Europe · N12%11.7hKp 2+
  34. 34Skibotn Northern Europe · N10%11.8hKp 1+
  35. 35Kilpisjärvi Northern Europe · N9%11.8hKp 1+
  36. 36Abisko Northern Europe · N9%11.7hKp 1+
  37. 37Utqiaġvik (Barrow) North America · N8%11.8hKp 0+
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 →